Eli5 Why does a cast saw not cut your skin?
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Cast saws are made to only vibrate back and forth a short distance, and to have relatively dull teeth. The cast material is hard but brittle meaning a short movement by the saw teeth will cause that part to shatter, allowing the saw to gradually cut through. Our flesh however acts more like a bag of water and when the saw moves a short distance against it the flesh can just compress and move out of the way without being damaged.
In high school I ripped out all the lining of my cast so it was just a hollow shell around my arm. When they cut it off it did leave a long cut on my arm but it was shallow and didn’t bleed much. The Dr. had just finished telling me how the saw worked and how it wouldn’t cut me. He was pretty mad when I blamed him.
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