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 Middle English kerf, kirf, kyrf, from Old English cyrf (“an act of cutting, a cutting off; a cutting instrument”), from Proto-Germanic *kurbiz (“a cut; notch”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- (“to scratch”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɜːf/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)f

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 with a saw or laser.
   • 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. The distance between diverging saw teeth.
4. The portion of hay, turf, wool, etc. yielded by a single cut or shearing stroke.

Related terms

• carve
• swarf

Translations

the groove or slit cut in the workpiece

• German: Einschnitt (de) m, Kerbe (de) f, Nut (de) f, Schlitz (de) m, Schnittfuge f, Fuge (de) f
• Italian: intaccatura (it) f

• Russian: зару́бка (ru) f (zarúbka), надру́б (ru) m (nadrúb), пропи́л (ru) m (propíl)

distance between diverging saw teeth

• German: Schränkung f
• Russian: ^{(please verify)} ширина́ разво́да зу́бьев пилы́ (širiná razvóda zúbʹjev pilý)

• Spanish: traba (es) f

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)

Anagrams

• ferk

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

kerf

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