9. TERMINOLOGY
9.1 WHAT DOES 4/4 MEAN?
Pronounced "four slash four". Refers to how many times the wood has
been slashed. If it's 5/4, the wood was slashed 4 times out of five
attempts. Make sure you pronounce it correctly, otherwise you'll look
like a complete dork at the lumberyard.
9.2 WHAT IS A BOARD FOOT?
It's when your foot gets tired and cranky from not having anything
interesting to do. No, wait, that's a "bored" foot.
It is important to know what a board foot is so that you don't look
like a dork at the lumberyard. It's just a board that's a foot long.
Some people give you complicated formulas such as take the length of
the board in inches, multiply by 12 and divide by 144. If you
actually do the arithmetic, you'll realize they only do this to
mystify newbies.
9.3 WHAT ARE SOME OF THE COMMON WOODWORKING TERMS/ABBREVIATIONS?
Your best bet is to watch old BBC sitcoms where they use the same
acronyms as this group.
9.4 WHAT IS SWMBO?
See no. 9.3.
9.5 WHAT IS A NEANDERTHAL?
Someone so useless as to be incapable of using power tools. They
usually end up chopping up their sawhorses and workmates with a skil
saw, decide the fault is with the skil saw and pretend to make a
virtue of a necessity. Use antique hand planes on unsuitable striped
tropical hardwoods when a belt sander would do a much better job in no
time at all. See Hand Plane FAQ
Disclaimer: This is not an attack on anyone who has ever posted in
this newsgroup, whether they have cut up workmates with a skil saw or
not. It is also not meant to imply any thing negative about Skil's or
Black & Decker's fine products, or people who make a virtue of a
necessity. The word skil saw was used generically, like kleenex, and
could refer to any portable circular saw, including those sold by
Sears. Notice that the words Zebrawood or shellac were not used, so
it is not meant to refer to any particular individual, but rather
generally to people who use hand planes on unsuitable wood. See
Disclaimer FAQ.
9.6 IS THIS A GLOAT?
It's a gloat only if you cheat a poor old widder lady out of her
rightful inheritance or if you rip off a store by taking advantage of
the dumb manager/clerk/cashier's stupidity. Nothing else qualifies,
not even Bessey clamps obtained at Sears, regardless of their length.
9.7 WHAT IS GOOGLE?
Don't bother. If it wasn't for people asking and answering the same
stupid questions all the time, this newsgroup would die.
9.8 WHAT IS A TROLL?
The answer is . . . PURPLE.