Peter asks about table saws:
> Ray, and other Sheffield saw freaks...
> I would love to know what these table saws were used for.
> I've seen them described in Hack's book and he wasn't certain either.
> Never seen saws like these in person, only in pictures and books.
>
>   
and the suggestion that they are for the tables of scarf joints comes in.

Perhaps I can add that scarfs are not only boat builders joints.   They 
figure in huge dimensions and amazingly complex configurations for the 
structural timbers of houses.  Places like Lavenham are riddled with 
them.   It is simple to imagine a large joint - almost assembled - held 
open with a couple of laths, whilst a saw is passed down the joint to 
make the mating surfaces flat and parallel. I'd always supposed that 
they were chiseled and routed flat and matching, but how much simpler to 
run a saw down the joint.

Aztecs may have done the same thing to get their rocks to fit..

Richard Wilson
in Northumberland
thinking I really *must* look out my copy of medieval joints which is 
*somewhere* in a box..

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