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