Kerfing and cursing

This morning I have been kerfing. I didn’t know the word existed or what it meant until yesterday. I knew what cursing meant though.

A kerf is the width of a groove made by a saw blade in a piece of wood. A curse is an incantation made when the depth of the kerf is too great and the blade cuts right through the wood. So why kerf?

We have an area of gravel in the garden which we want to edge with gravel boards. But rather than boring old straight lines we decided to make some curves; this is a big challenge for Anniemay because she doesn’t normally do curves in the garden, but she’s being brave.

I get some gravel boards (about 8 feet x 6”x 1”) and cut a series of grooves across the width of the wood so that I can try and bend them. This cutting of grooves in a piece of wood, in order to bend it, is known as kerfing. It’s an old word and has its roots in boat building and guitar/violin making.

It’s all a bit trial and error; too shallow a cut and the board won’t bend - too deep and it breaks. Too few grooves and it won’t bend - too many and it breaks again…… you get the idea. This gives rise to the curse.

It’s tricky enough as it is, without trying to photograph the process as well; but that’s my own particular blip challenge. I call on Anniemay to operate my chop saw and lower the blade while I play around with my camera. Anniemay has never operated the saw before; she switches on and leaps about 2 feet in the air as the power kicks in. We stop and rehearse switching on and off until she can lower the blade into the right position for a photograph without damaging herself or the wood.

I give the first board a gentle bend to see if I’ve got the depth and number of cuts about right. It’s not bad and I’m quite impressed - Anniemay is not, I can tell. I think she expected to be able to tie knots with it.

Client disappointment notwithstanding, I think it's been a productive morning; I get to bend a plank of wood, a blip of the process and a new word for Scrabble.