i'd love to get my hands on a froe, but until then have made these with an axe and a block plane. the way i've worked it is to split boards off the outside of the block, then split those into 1 1/4" blanks, square them up with the axe, put the taper on with the axe, go octagonal with the axe, then clean it up with the plane. if you hit a block that doesn't seem cooperative, that's firewood.
it's a nice sound when the peg goes in the bucket. something to do at this time of year, kind of leisurely, getting ready for next year's projects. i've used black ash as it splits nice, keeping to the living wood.
here's something similar- if you cut a peg from a 2' block, make it a bit fatter than usual at the front 1/3, it makes a traditional Oji-Cree toy. i don't know the proper name; we call it a snow snake. when there's a crust on the snow you can throw this along the ground and it scoots, jumps and dives like a living thing. it's good to make several because they do get lost until spring sometimes.
