In a message dated 11/11/1999 9:53:16 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> The carpenter makes puncheons by riving boards about two inches
>  thick and six to ten inches wide from a log, using a froe and a mallet.
>  Smoothing is done with a foot adze, working cross-grain after the floor is
>  installed.  A cruder type of puncheon is made by splitting sapling logs in
> half,
>  leaving the bark intact.

Is this the "punching" that relates to "puncheon"? Is the splitting (don't
know what a "froe" is....) the act that relates it to the other root words?

-- Needs to watch traditional woodcraft in action