Among the apocyphal stories of Jesus' childhood theres the tale of the young Jesus helping one of his father's aprentices when the fellow cut a board in half to make a table top and the edges didn't match.
It occurred to me that rather than measuring the board wrong the aprentice had measured down the center then relied on a square which was out of kilter to mark for the cut.
with the cut a degree or two out of square swinging the board around flat would result in one linear edge not being the same length as its mating edge.
Simply flipping the board over would make the edges match.
Of course the line across the ends of the board would not be exactly straight but not so far off as to be easily noticable and easily planed and sanded out in final finishing.
What do you think of the story, my explanation of the event, and the moral to be learned from it?
It occurred to me that rather than measuring the board wrong the aprentice had measured down the center then relied on a square which was out of kilter to mark for the cut.
with the cut a degree or two out of square swinging the board around flat would result in one linear edge not being the same length as its mating edge.
Simply flipping the board over would make the edges match.
Of course the line across the ends of the board would not be exactly straight but not so far off as to be easily noticable and easily planed and sanded out in final finishing.
What do you think of the story, my explanation of the event, and the moral to be learned from it?
