Comments on: How to Saw

By: purocuyu

purocuyu — Thu, 02 May 2013 20:02:44 +0000

Say for instance you are cutting a tenon. you wil have a line on the end grain of the piece of wood (one side) and another line running parallel to long side of the board (another line), which you drew there to delineate the cheek you will cut off. these two lines will help keep you straight in two directions.

By: Barquester

Barquester — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 02:15:42 +0000

I bet you haven’t heard this one.
I’ve become addicted to Japanese pull saws, mainly for the price. But I’ve been practicing, Oh no, dovetails. But I was having a lot of trouble seeing the line. A duh moment! Wait, push saws don’t clog the face with saw dribble. So I turned the pull saw around and started cutting backwards with it and made my first perfect dovetail joint.
I just ordered a Veritas Dovetail saw.

By: Ted Thompson

Ted Thompson — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 03:31:05 +0000

Rule 7 states "Whenever possible, advance on two lines……….." What does that mean?

By: Walt Cheever

Walt Cheever — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 03:23:45 +0000

Chris, Another thing I have discovered along with sawing to the line on two faces is to let the kerf guide the saw. In order to do that I continually vary the angle of the saw blade. First I extend the kerf a ways on the top face (low angle) letting the vertical kerf guide the blade. Then I extend the vertical kerf (high angle) letting the horizontal kerf control the blade.

Also you forgot the first principle–USE A SHARP SAW!

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 16:16:32 +0000

Great entry, thanks for the informative post! I learned a good piece of advice from the course I took at Homestead Heritage:

While you don’t want to apply a lot (or any) pressure when making the cut, letting the weight of the saw do the work, you still need to mean business with your arm motion. I’ve still got a ways to go, finding the balance between light pressure and strong motion, but it seems to do the trick.

By: Christopher Schwarz

Christopher Schwarz — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 01:41:15 +0000

Guy,

In essence, it’s like the photo shown above. John there is sawing across both the end grain and edge grain while cutting a tenon cheek. When he hits the baseline at the joint’s shoulder, he’ll reverse the piece and do the same on the other edge. This trick is a boon to accuracy.

I hope this helps.

Chris

By: Gye Greene

Gye Greene — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 01:04:51 +0000

Chris,

Sorry — could you please clarify?

(7. Whenever possible, advance on two lines (tenons, crosscutting, dovetailing at times). This increases your accuracy.)

Do you mean, target the line on the face, as well as the edge, as the same time? i.e. so you’re working in three dimensions, not two?

–GG

By: Christopher Schwarz

Christopher Schwarz — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:59:04 +0000

Pedro,

I wish there were a simple answer here that didn’t begin with "It depends…."

The point I was trying to make is to never saw a certain distance away from your line if you want accuracy. Either saw right against the line or take away a fraction of the line.

Which one of those techniques depends on what you are trying to accomplish. I saw against the line when tenoning. I split the line when dovetailing.

Same rules apply (for me) when working with a knife line in 2nd and 1st class sawcuts.

Chris

By: P. M.

P. M. — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:35:03 +0000

“…Always work right against a line. Never saw a certain distance away from a line”

Does this mean that the line should prevail right beside the cut after the cut is finished (on which side the line should be waste or piece?), or this mean that one edge of the kerf should erase the line, or your line(s) should disappear under the center of the kerf whilst you make the cut?
What should happen with a line that is coming from a marking knife (or gage)?

Regards,

P.M.

By: Mike Siemsen

Mike Siemsen — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 23:21:58 +0000

"I see", said the blind cabinetmaker as he picked up his hammer and saw.