> Specifically, I am thinking about removing all but the one, top, wide
> cutting surface from a file and using it as a tool that can be slid
> between adjacent strips and will cut neither the previously installed
> strip surface or the form. It would only cut the newly laid in strip, and
> at the exact angle needed to mate it to the last existing strip. This
> would be done by simply indexing the bottom flat side of the file against
> the existing strip, and cutting the new strip, clear across the stations
> and all points in between.

> mick, I propose a new strip fitting standard in the likes of C&B - m&K
> (short for mick & Ken [Ken is my real name]). Plus, we could sell the
> m&K WONDER FILES for $100 each and split the profits . . . Big market on
> this board since they don't know the secret . . . heh, heh, heh . . .

A narrow strip of coarse sandpaper stapled, thumbtacked or glued to one side of a piece of scrap 1/4 inch thick woodstrip does the same job for almost no cost. Unlike a file, the sandpaper cuts on both the push and pull strokes.

If you are looking for a marketable tool, figure out some way to chuck this sandpaper covered strip into a sabersaw or reciprocating saw so that you have an electric motor pushing and pulling it back and forth. Perhaps you could wire it or epoxy glue it to an old saber sawblade, and chuck the sawblade in the sabersaw. A variable speed sabersaw would allow you to work at a slow but steady speed to maximize cutting, but reduce heat build up from friction. You would not want to lubricate the sliding wood strip with anything that might later interfere with the glue that bonds the boat's strips together.

A spacer block under the sabresaw could be constructed that would accurately guide the sanding strip and leep it at the right angle. With the saw doing the pushing and pulling, all you would have to do is guide this slowly along the edge of the strip, working carefully around the forms.

Of course, if you simply constructed the fence arrangement you could forget the file or sanding stick, and simply cut away the excess wood from one strip or both strips . I think that idea has been proposed already, but in reference to using a circular saw. with a circular saw you could adjust the depth so that you cut through the strips and would barely notch the undrlying forms. With a sabresaw you would have to remove the saw at each form, and the reinsert it on the other side of the form.

Paul G. Jacobson