Corner of My Mind wrote:
| Morris Dovey wrote:
|| mistake called for a "board stretcher" or an "unsaw" for recovery.
|
| How much do those specialized tools cost and what is a good brand
| to buy?

Board stretchers are generally made of a special alloy of Unobtanium,
and if you need to ask the price, then you're disqualified forever as
a purchaser.

I don't know much about unsaws - I think you' probably have to ask
this question in news:alt.trinaries.sorcery.woodworking. I recall
hearing a rumor about mounting a sawblade backward and chanting
"wasnu" as the stock is fed, but there is some danger of kickback (not
the stock - the unsaw.)

|| When I backed up and forced myself to learn to use hand tools
|| first, I began paying attention to the grain and how different
|| woods responded to being cut. The most-used tool in my shop today
|| is a CNC router - but for those jobs in which I have any emotional
|| investment, I still pull out my chisel roll, a plane (or three),
|| and a scraper to clean up things my eyes can't see but my
|| fingertips tell me aren't quite right yet.
||
|| When I moved back from hand to power tools I discovered that I'd
|| developed a better sense of what would "work", higher standards and
|| expectations, and an inclination to consider what I'd experienced
|| using hand tools before I fired up the power tool.
|
| Another vote for hand tools. I'm noticing a pattern.

I like both powered and unpowered (and good software) tools. Using
hand tools provides some useful preparation for using power tools
well. The pattern /is/ there, but don't rush to a misinterpretation...

(I cringe at the idea of ripping 150 lineal feet of ipe, for example,
with even the best of hand saws)

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/solar.html