I'm curious,
something I don't understand.
Wood is basically cells of wood all arranged. practically this means that if you slice off a shaving you get a cross section of cell walls and a lot of air.
Now supposing you take a really fine shaving and then put a thickness gauge on it to measure the shaving, won't the vertical walls of the cell, which are even in a fine shaving, thinner than they are tall, fall over? or at least buckle a lot?
So are those contest folks measuring the thickness of the shaving, or at some point of thinness what you actually are measuring is the thickness of a compressed cell wall or a cell wall on its side?
Certainly - if they are it would explain why the shavings while transparent aren't so much more transparent than a very thin, shaving in the sub thou of an inch world.
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Tools for Working Wood