I had to look up skookum online. I'd never heard it before.
I have a regular Bosch circ saw, not a worm drive. It actually has a plasic base. I think it's as good as a stamped steel one. I think it's plastic so it can survive drop test without permanently deforming the base - it has some give, but is still rigid enough in use. I don't have personal experience with the Mag or aluminum base of the wormsaws though. I was just using this saw a couple weeks ago to rip 2 inch thick white oak (12 feet long). I was ripping 3"X2" stock out of 12 inch wide boards I have to make bunk frames for a buddy's hunting cabin. The saw did well in the 2" thick oak.
Skookum is a Chinook jargon word that has come into general use in British Columbia and Yukon Territory in Canada, and in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.
Principal meaning
It has a range of positive meanings. As described in the FAQ from Skookum Tools, the word can have meanings from "'good,' to 'strong,' 'best,' 'powerful,' 'ultimate' and 'first rate.' Something can be skookum meaning 'cool' or skookum can be 'tough.' A skookum burger is a big (or really tasty) hamburger, but when your Mom's food is skookum, it's delicious but also hearty [...] When you're skookum, you've got a purpose and you're on solid ground."
Being called skookum may also mean that someone can be counted on as reliable and hard-working, or is big and strong. In a perhaps slightly less positive vein, skookum house means jail or prison, cf. the English euphemism "the big house" but here meaning "strong house". Skookum tumtum, lit. "strong heart", is generally translated as "brave" or possibly "good-hearted". In the Chinook Jargon, skookum is also used as a verb auxiliary, as in "can" or "to be able". Another compound, though fallen out of use in modern BC English, is skookum lacasset", or strongbox.
A related word "skookumchuck" means turbulent water or rapids in a stream or river, i.e. "strong water" ("chuck" is Chinook Jargon for "water" or "stream" or "lake"). There are three placenames in British Columbia using this word, one of them for a famous saltwater rapid at the mouth of Sechelt Inlet, the others at rapids on the Lillooet and Columbia Rivers. While the rapid at the mouth of Sechelt Inlet is the skookumchuck on the coast, the term is used in a general sense for other patches of rough water al, typically tidal-exchange rapids at the mouths of other inlets or bays, which are a regular feature of the British Columbia Coast.
