On 2006-12-29, Dave Smith > wrote:

> Cedar splits easily. The west coast Indians made large homes with
> weed planks. They used stone or hard wood wedges to split wooden
> planks from logs. Early pioneers were able to square lumber to
> build their cabins and out buildings. They used a tool called an
> adz, an ax-like tool with an offset blade.

Good points all, Dave. I did a little more research and tend to agree
with you. I wasn't thinking cedar so much as redwood, not realizing red
Western cedar is native to the Northwest. You also bring up a good
point on the use of stone wedges. I should have known this, having
taken WA history the year I spent as a senior in a WA HS. I fall on
the geezer/alhzee sword as an excuse knowing the benevolent regulars
will let me off with a couple tsk tsks, even if only to thumb their
nose at the aggregate new wave.

nb ...can you tell I've had a couple