The Popular Woodworking E-News jumped on the
Riving Knife bandwagon that seems to be the latest
RAVE. OOOOOOH! A NEW discovery! "Look - the NEW
Bosch contractors saw has - A RIVING KNIFE!"

Are American woodworking magazines really that
impressed when a manufacturer puts wheels on
a cabinet saw - "PowerMatic has once again shown
how innovative they are by - putting wheels on
their cabinet saw! What a break through in machine
design!" Before that break through announcement
it was "One Wrench Bit Changing!" for routers, and
"Now With Left Tilt Blade!" on a table saw.

It's ironic that the New and Innovative Blade
Guard and Riving Knife on the Bocsh in question
also has "anti-kickback pawls" - the latter being
a pretty ineffective idea that just gets in the way.
So while being innovative, they carry over a
"legacy" idea that should have gone the way of
the Dodo decades ago.

I expect to see riving knives on hand held circular
saws being trumpeted as the next New AND Improved
Innovation.

Euro woodworkers must be chuckling - under their
breath of course - no need to offend anyone - and
Festool must be warming up their patent protection
lawyers since their plunge circular saw - with riving
knife, depth of cut stop and anti-splintering devices
will surely be cloned and appearing on competitors
line of high end stuff.

Hey non American woodworkers - what will we
on This Side of The Pond be seeing as the NEXT
Innovation?

charlie b