the.com/kerf

means The narrow groove or notch left by a saw cut, equal to the width of material the blade removed as sawdust.

from From Old English 'cyrf,' meaning a cutting or a piece cut off — itself tied to the verb 'ceorfan,' to carve or cut. It's a distant cousin of 'carve,' both descending from the same old Germanic root for cutting into something. The word has stuck around in woodworking and metalworking for centuries, naming that thin strip of material a blade turns to waste just by passing through.