JohnPW":tfrkj2n8 said:
How do you pronounce "chamfer"? OK I know "dado" is actually pronounced "housing" ... but what about "dado" as in "dado rail"? I've never heard anyone say it in real life and thought it's dar-doe ("long" a and without rolling the r). Or maybe dad-doe.
The Oxford Dictionary entry on "dado" says day-doe.
'Sh'amfer and 'ch'amfer are both in common usage. It depends on regional preference, in much the same way Americans and Brits sometimes debate the pronunciation of words like tomato.
Dado, pronounced as your dictionary says, day-doe, can refer to at least two different things. In both British and American architectural usage it refers to the lower part of a wall, below the dado (or chair) rail, usually bounded at the bottom by the skirting board (UK), aka the base board (US). Secondly, the Americans, as you are aware, use the term dado for what we Brits call a housing or trench. Interestingly, many Americans mistakenly also call a groove or channel a dado, but that's because their knowledge of their own terminology is incomplete. I think that's because, like here in the UK, much of the trade traditions of learning through apprenticeships and other structured learning have fallen by the wayside, and some of the vacuum has been filled through online learning. It's fascinating, and sometimes slightly irritating, to see American woodworking jargon spilling over, primarily, into British amateur woodworking efforts because of the internet.
The slight irritation comes from the fact that quite a number of amateur British woodworkers have picked up on this jargon, as well as American style machine woodworking methods, and try to apply this alien terminology and technology (which doesn't meet UK machine woodworking regulations) out of context. This leads to some confusion, and to some complaints by these amateur woodworkers about, for example, the difficulty or inability to fit dado blades to most table saws available to the UK buyer. Dado blades generally can't be fitted because the machines are made in such a way as to prevent it, but the regulatory reasons for why the machines are made this way is not understood: having just said that, there are exceptions that do allow fitting of a dado blade, so long as additional measures are taken to make the proposed operation comply with recommended safe woodworking practice.
I think I've probably said too much, but not enough to provide complete clarity, and I've no wish to start a 'Why can't I fit a dado blade to my table saw?' war, ha, ha. Slainte.
