Making Wooden Shingles — Riving Roof Tiles from a Bolt of Timber

Before fired clay tiles or slate became affordable, every roof in the temperate world was covered in wooden shingles — thin, flat pieces of riven timber that overlap like fish scales to shed rain. A single roof might need a thousand shingles, but a skilled worker with a froe and mallet can produce several hundred in a day. Shingles made from durable heartwood — oak, cedar, chestnut, or larch — last 30 to 50 years without treatment.

Shingles must be riven, never sawn. A riven shingle has intact grain running from top to bottom — water runs along the fibres and drips off the bottom edge without soaking in. A sawn shingle has cut fibres that act like tiny straws, wicking water into the wood and rotting it within a few years. This is the fundamental reason riving survived alongside sawmills for centuries — shingles were one product where the old method was simply better.

The technique requires a bolt (a short log section) of straight-grained wood and a froe — an L-shaped cleaving blade that gives precise control over the split line. Each shingle is split from the bolt, then shaved smooth on one face with a drawknife. The result is a lightweight, weather-resistant roof tile produced entirely from hand tools and local timber.