kerf

See also: Kerf

English

Collecting resin: a pot pitched between a nail and a kerf in a tree.

A schematic drawing of a saw blade looking head-on: the divergence between the teeth that protrude left-and-right is the kerf, it defines the width of the saw cut.

Etymology

From Old English cyrf (“a cutting off, a cutting instrument”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɜːf/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

kerf (plural kerfs)

1. The groove or slit created by cutting a workpiece; an incision.
   • 1999, Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon:

     They pass through a cleft that has been made across a low range of hills, like a kerf in the top of a log, and enter into a lovely territory of subtly swelling emerald green fields strewn randomly with small white capsules that he takes to be sheep.

2. The width of the groove made while cutting.
   • 1991, Popular Mechanics, January issue, page 63, "Thin-kerf blades", by Rosario Capotostro

     Sawing with a thin-kerf blade produces a kerf that's 1/2 to 1/3 the size of a standard blade kerf.

3. Distance between diverging saw teeth

Translations

the groove or slit cut in the workpiece

• German: Einschnitt (de) m, Kerbe (de) f, Nut (de) f, Schlitz (de) m, Schnittfuge f
• Russian: зарубка (ru) f (zarúbka), надруб (ru) m (nadrúb), пропил (ru) m (propíl)

distance between diverging saw teeth

• German: Schränkung f
• Russian: ширина (širina) развода (razvoda) зубьев (zubʹjev) пилы (pily) (širiná razvóda zúbʼev pilý)

Related terms

• carve

Verb

kerf (third-person singular simple present kerfs, present participle kerfing, simple past and past participle kerfed)

1. To cut a piece of wood or other material with several kerfs to allow it to be bent.

References

• kerf in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911 (Supplement)

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

kerf

1. first-person singular present indicative of kerven
2. imperative of kerven