This whole chipbreaker discussion has been interesting. I will confess that I haven't followed it in detail, as I'm behind on a large project on the home because other, supposedly smaller projects suddenly get urgent (I'm about to replace three irrigation valves because they've begun to fail even after I repaired them, and our water bills are going up, and I just can't afford to let them leak...for instance).

But some folks have been getting a mite wrought up over tangential questions: who said it first and whether s/he said it in enough detail and with enough precision to count, and whether information gained from study of power tools is or isn't useful on hand tools, etc. and so on. We do want to recognize the contributions of the many craftsfolk who have been here before us, but we don't want to pollute the air at Wood Central by the tone of our posts. Civility comes first. "I disagree and here's why" or "Here's some information I have from my reading/research/field experience" is a whole different message from "You're wrong, ya dang fool."

I enjoy moderating here because this community is populated by people who bring civility to the table 99.9% of the time. And it helps tremendously that the group self-corrects; over and over, I've seen gentle or politely blunt responses to posts that stepped over the bounds of civility. Every once in a while, I feel the need to put on the formal robes of the moderator to re-assert that standard; but I'm always confident that the atmosphere of courtesy will return, because I know it matters to y'all that we behave that way.