Power has been used to help us cut building materials for centuries. For most of their history, though, power saws were only used in industrial or large-scale commercial applications, because they were tied to their source of power -- usually water. Once electricity became commonly available, job-site and home use power saws for cutting everything from framing timbers to pipe started to appear. Now, with the increasing availability of cordless saws, we aren't even tied to an outlet where we're working.