This Is The MOST IMPORTANT WORD IN CARPENTRY + WOODWORKING!! (Agree/Disagree? 3 REASONS WHY...)

so carpentry is full of obscure words some of which date back hundreds or even thousands of years in origin it's one of the reasons I love being a carpenter it has a secret language to it words like mutton pie Lister astragal or purlins chamfer and rabbit they're fun to say and they make you sound really knowledgeable when you're talking to nan carpenters most of these words have very specific uses that don't come up every day but there's one word one very old word that is so integral to every aspect of carpentry and woodworking I've come to believe it's the most important word in our trade understanding this word and the concept behind it immediately sets you apart from novices it affects the outcome and quality of every project and ultimately it decides whether you work safely or risk harm to your body and your tools the most important word in carpentry is this one curve if you don't know what it means you need to know and if you do know what it means stick around you might learn a little more about it that's coming up now on the honest carpenter show the word curved existed in Middle English a thousand years ago exactly as you see it today but the origins of the word go back 6,000 years to a proto-indo-european root think about it this word predates the metal bronze that's a long journey from the Neolithic period to now and it indicates just how fundamental this word is that it can exist virtually unchanged for so long in the last couple of hundred years the word curved has taken on a more refined definition it means the groove are not created when a saw cuts through something or it sometimes also refers to the width of a saw blade at the teeth if there is one thing rookie carpenters and Dionne wires fail to understand it's the concept of kerf so screw a project after project risk their fingers and their tools all because they're failing to grasp this one idea so let's break down how curved works in the end it all comes down to one really simple concept when you cut something with a sole you are permanently removing a portion of that thing forever most inexperienced people think that when you cut a board you split it evenly into two pieces but you don't you create two individual pieces that if added together will equal less than what they started as part of that board is gone permanently and where does it go sawdust you'll never get that portion or your board back because it has been blasted into a little pieces some of them are big enough that you can see him others are so small that even your vacuum filter can't pick them up this happens because the saw blade has a certain thickness to it in order for a saw blade to pass through a piece of material it has to clear a path wide enough for itself to travel through it does this by using individual salt teeth to knock out tiny chunks of wood bit by bit until it eventually clears a groove all success and failure in carpentry centers around this groove and we call this groove the curve but why is the curve so important well boil it down to three main reasons but remember that the third reason is by far the most important so no matter what you do do not skip that one but we need to build up to it so let's start at the beginning reason number one measurement accuracy here's the classic mistake that beginners make they're looking at some plans that say that they need to cut a one by four board to 32 inches in length so they pull a tape measure on their piece of wood make a mark at 32 then they bring their saw up send other blade on that mark and start cutting before they've even gotten started they've already screwed up why because the saw blade itself has a certain thickness if the center of the saw blade is on that mark then it means half of the saw blade width is on the wrong side of the mark your 32 inch board is gonna come up a little bit short and in carpentry in woodworking that small difference is going to come back to haunt you so a better way to visualize it is like this most power saw blades these days have carbide teeth they're her 1/8 of an inch wide let's plot that out in pencil lines here our lines are 1/8 the part perfectly representing our blade path if we truly want our board to be 32 inches long that cut path needs to sit on the far side of the cut mark this way we're always hugging right up against the 32 inch boundary but not crossing it so as I said if you Center your blade on the cut mark half the blade is cutting wood that you want to leave to prevent themselves from making a mistake carpenters will often work the waist side of their piece with little X's those X's say keep your blade on this side of the line with that in mind you're safe to line up the point or tip of your blade tooth with the line make your cut and know that you're leaving your full measurement and this applies no matter what kind of solve our blade you're using jigsaw blades are much thinner than circular saw blades but they still have a wick to them so when you're cutting with them you want to stay on the proper side of your cut line and not mess up your dimensions that's how is indelibly tied to measurement accuracy you need to always consider the curve thickness of the blade and where the cut path lies but kerf also determines how your finished product comes out looking which brings us to the second reason why I think this is the most important word in carpentry cut quality cutting what is a highly destructive process the cut path of a blade is a site of contained chaos where metal meets organic grain with tremendous amounts of speed and force the process almost has less to do with cutting and more to do with smashing because I'm a small enough level that's exactly what's happening it's as though each blade tooth is head-butting its way through the material that you're cutting if that sounds ridiculous it's actually pretty accurate the face of each saw tooth hits the material head-on removing one little chunk at a time this happens so fast and so frequently that it looks like the kerf is magically appearing but it's not wood grain is being torn out by force and this force can leave the edges of the cut ragged and ugly not acceptable especially in woodworking what you want is a clean tight curve with very little chipping or tearing so how do you get it the absolute most important thing is to keep a very sharp saw blade in order for the blade to make a clean curve the teeth need to be very sharp and well-defined if the teeth are dull they're going to create more efficient which will bog and slow down the motor thus all teeth will drag and they'll have to tear a material out any way that they can sharper teeth create less friction this means that the mower can run fluidly at max cutting speed and the curve will be sharper and tighter but sometimes even this isn't enough to ensure a clean curve so woodworkers use a variety of techniques to help out in some instances they'll tape both the top and bottom surfaces of the material this prevents the grain from blowing out with the passage of the blade I did this in my how to cut down doors video so you can get a better look at it there if you like woodworkers also use backing blocks especially on the miter saw backing blocks are a sacrificial piece of wood behind the piece you're cutting when the Sall teeth finally exit the back of a wood piece finishing off the kerf they tend to blow through it violently it's a little bit of wood at the back has nothing to counteract that action so a backing block provides support to protect your piece as you finish creating the curved woodworkers will also score cut lines with a sharp knife beforehand by severing this top material before cutting right cutline its lesyk line to get blown out during the cutting process there are even some really high-end shop table saws that now actually do this for you they have two blades the one that does most of the cutting and a smaller blade in front of that one that scores a sharp line for the main blade to follow I've never even used one of these Sol's before but they're really good example of how important curved control is to woodworkers I mean just look at the price tag on that grizzly if you can see how kerf effects cut quality on every single cut but the third and main reason why kerf is the most important word in carpentry and woodworking has to do in one thing safety virtually everything that can go wrong while you're cutting with a saw has to do with the kerf when a blade is in the process of cutting it's essentially encased in the piece of wood it's clearing its own path and if that path is stable the blade will pass through without a problem where things will go wrong though is when the kerf closes in around the blade this situation is called binding and it's something that carpenters worry about on every single cut binding mainly occurs for three reasons one is because the wood has grain warpage --is that might cause it to bend and close around the blade two is that the piece of wood or the saw itself can get twisted or turned while cutting also causing binding three is that the wood stock is not well supported and as the wood bows and collapses at the cut line it begins to squeeze the blade while it's spinning when these things occur bad stuff inevitably happens and it happens very quickly when table stalls bind they tend to throw went towards the operator - all is fine they kick up violently often blasting wind pieces and when circular saw is fine they jump up and backwards launching themselves out of the cut and back towards the operator all this happens because the motor doesn't have the strength to keep pushing the blade forward so instead it throws the stock or the saw backwards this is very scary especially for rookies the kerf needs to remain stable that path that the kerf is creating the kerf groove is like a protective bubble around the blade it lets the blade spin freely without pressure when that bubble shrinks in the kerf closes friction on the blade increases rapidly and everything goes haywire I'll do multiple videos on power saw safety later because they're complex topics and they deserve a lot of attention but for now take my word for it this how fingers get lost how puncture wounds occur from flying objects how tolls and materials get destroyed these days tools have more safety features to prevent these things than they ever had before table cells have driving knives to keep wood from squeezing the blade circular saws and miter saws have spring back guards in case the saw jumps and or blades have even changed nearly all circular blades now have carbide teeth which are wider than the blade itself this means that they create a wider curve thereby lowering the chance of binding carbide teeth make cleaner cuts with less kerf tear out and they stay sharp for a longer period of time this was a brilliant innovation which instantly made power tools safer so that's it three main reasons why I think kerf is the most important word in carpentry and woodworking if you understand it you'll be safer work more efficiently and get better finished results on all your projects what do you think do you agree with me disagree with me do you think there's a more important word in carpentry woodworking it's a philosophical exercise but I know I'm right so you can try to convince me otherwise down in the comment section as always thanks for watching please consider subscribing and hitting that little bell beside the subscribe button so you get notifications when we post more videos I'm Nathan James with Yost carpenter calm I'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: The Honest Carpenter

Views: 281,086

Keywords: most important word in carpentry, woodworking terminology, kerf, what is kerf width, saw kerf cut, saw kerf width, circular saw kerf, the honest carpenter, woodworking tips, saw kerf, carpentry terms, basic carpentry terms, table saw kerf knife, riving knife, carbide teeth, table saw notch, saw blade groove, saw binding in wood, circular saw binding, table saw binding, miter saw binding, skill saw binding, circular saw binding at end of cut

Id: 5RNViGUV0HY

Length: 10min 3sec (603 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 07 2020