Sawdust on the Floor

Maybe good ole William Shakespeare was correct, when he wrote one of the best known quotes” let’s kill all the lawyers”.  Actually this was only part of the statement uttered during Shakespeare’s Henry the VI play.  The entire line goes “first thing we do is kill all the lawyers” and was referring to ways that the rebellion could succeed. While I haven’t read any of Shakespeare’s works since I left school, and even back then I didn’t totally relate to his work, I can appreciate the sentiments of his statement.

I recently read an article, “Tablesaws on Trial, in the new issue of Wood Magazine* relating the facts of a law suit filed in Boston Mass., where a 25 year old woodworker was injured while using a tablesaw.   According to papers filed in court one Carlos Osorio was working on repairing hardwood flooring for a small Boston company. He reportedly was using a Ryobi Bench top tablesaw and attempted to free hand rip a piece of flooring.  During the ripping action, the piece of flooring kicked and his left hand went into the blade.  Carlos suffered a near amputation of one finger and serious injury to two other fingers. The injury to the two fingers left Carlos with limited use of those two fingers. Being a woodworker who has also suffered a hand injury on a tablesaw I feel for Carlos.  No one wants to see anyone injured or maimed.  

But Carlos, who freely admits that his tablesaw did not have the blade guard or splitter installed, decided to file a lawsuit.  His lawsuit was not against his employer, nor was it against the home owner; his lawsuit was against the parent company of Ryobi.  The basis of the lawsuit was that Ryobi failed to incorporate the “Flesh Detecting “technology like that on the SawStop tablesaw which could have lessened the severity of his injuries. 

Carlo’s lawyer argued that the flesh detecting technology had been offered to Ryobi, and several other manufactures of tablesaws years ago, and these manufacturers, for a multitude of reasons, elected not to incorporate the technology.  According to court papers, Carlos’ lawyer stated that the saw was defectively designed because it did not include the technology.  Wow, a corporate business decision not to include an option, now equates to bad design. The shocking part of this story is that the court awarded Carlos a whopping $1.5 million dollars for his injury.

What bothers me is not the award, although the amount of money is staggering.  What bothers me is the entry of good olde Willy Shakespeare’s lawyers into mine and your workshop.  Woodworkers are always welcome, but Lawyers…………..  

* “Tablesaws on Trial” Wood Magazine September 2010 pg 28-29

The distinction between hard and soft is a very easy one, in every field except woodworking. For instance when you are ordering tacos, the choice of hard or soft is easy. Or when you are purchasing a new mattress or pillow, hard or soft choices are obvious. The same can not be said about wood. It is really impossible to determine if a piece of wood is a hardwood or soft wood simply by appearance, feel or heft. You really need to understand what kind of tree the wood came from.

All trees reproduce by creating seeds. Hardwood trees and softwood trees produce vastly different types of seeds. Those for hardwood are always produced with some sort of cover on the seed, while softwood tree seeds will have no covering. The hardwood seeds which are known as Angiosperms, can be found in things like apples, pears or acorns. While the seeds for softwoods, are released by the tree without any protection for the seed. The scientific name for softwood trees is Gymnosperms.

A more general way to think about the difference is that hardwood trees will lose all of their leaves during cold weather, while the softwood trees will retain there leaves. Trees like the maple or oak are all in the angiosperm or hardwood family, while trees like the pine, or fir trees are part of the softwood or Gymnosperm family.

It is also correct to say that Evergreens are in the softwood grouping while deciduous trees are from the hardwood side. No matter which set of terminology you choose to use, the distinction is really based on the reproduction habits of the tree and nothing else.

So here is a quiz for you. Which of the following woods are hardwoods and which is soft? Pine, Douglas Fir, Maple, Hickory, Chestnut, Apple, Balsa or Walnut. If you choose to put the Maple, Hickory, Chestnut, Apple, Walnut and Balsa in the hardwood category you would have been correct. Balsa trees are deciduous trees, therefore there wood falls into the hardwood classification.

Strange as it seems, that is the real difference. Gee, now I wished I had paid more attention back in junior high school science classes when they tried to teach me these things.