So you're probably wondering to yourself, Why on earth would anyone need to cut dowels in half length-wise? (Unless you work in the Interior Decorating, or Carpentry business, in which case the answer is obvious.)
The answer is, of course, for trimming things.
James is taking Latin this year (yes, we're "stunned and amazed", too!), following in the footsteps of his elder brother (but don't tell him that, because he don't follow in nobody's footsteps!); and one of the projects that the Latin students take part in, is the annual Build-an-example-of-Roman-Architecture project. Where they build an example of Roman architecture. Or did you already guess that part?
Adam built a very nice model of a Roman villa a few years back. James decided to build a Roman temple instead. In this case, a temple dedicated to the god of keys and locks. Can't remember his/her name. But the temple is definitely worthy of a Roman diety! All gold-colored, with fancy columns and high ceilings, and even a statue of the diety itself.
The columns are, of course, fake. The ones which grace the exterior of the flat walls are not fully round, they are only half-rounds which are glued onto the wall so as to look fully round.
Which is where the dowel-cutting comes in.
Roman architecture demands strict adherance to symmetry and form, so the columns must look nice. And had we tried to cut the dowels in half (length-wise) without the use of a jig, they would've looked awful.
And we can't have that, now, can we?
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