resawing by hand

Hi All.

For a lack of band saw I am faced with problem of resawing stock by hand. Planing with a scrab plane 3/4" stock down to 1/4" really seems like a waste of wood. A while ago I saw somewhere picture showing something which looked like resawing by hand. Does anyone tried something like that? What saw wood be appropriate? Technique? What about Japanese saws?

Thanks, Dmitri.

Reply to
Dmitri
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Underhill did this on one of his past shows. If I remember right the process is as follows:

  1. Scribe a line around all 4 edges.
  2. Place the board in the vise at about a 45° angle.
  3. Hold a rip saw horizontally and start to cut at the upper corner (split the scribed line). The end grain should be away from you.
  4. Continue cutting until the saw gets to the adjacent corner.
  5. Flip the board in the vise so that the adjacent corner is now upper most.
  6. Continue cutting until the saw gets to the previous cut on the opposite side.
  7. Repeat steps 5&6 until you're done.

Art

Reply to
Wood Butcher

I've got a 600 mm bow saw (ECE brand) with a set of Japanese style blades (rip and crosscut). The rip blade is 1-1/2 in wide and the saw tracks beautifully. I haven't tried re-sawing anything wide yet, but I'm convinced it'll work well.

-JBB

Reply to
J.B. Bobbitt

one of the woodworking magazines had this a few years ago. They made the saw by building a rectangular frame about 4 feet long and stretching a section of a bandsaw down the middle of the long. In use they cut part way through the board on each edge (maybe two inches) using a table saw and then used their "bow" saw to saw through the rest of the board.

Reply to
Connearney

I sometimes do this, mainly when making saya (scabbards) for Japanese swords, because it's traditional to do so. I'm usually working in lime, instead of Japanese timbers that are hard to obtain in a useful size.

You need the right saw. I've a bunch of ryoba, only one tracks well enough for a 3' long resaw.

I support the timber on two low horses, one of which is broad enough for me to stand on. I work barefoot and clamp the timber down with both big toes.

Then I saw. Working towards myself, I only saw half-a-dozen strokes before stopping and turning the board over.

Some time about a week later, I have a beautiful resaw.

-- Do whales have krillfiles ?

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Got a table saw?

Using the rip fence, cut _almost_ through from one edge. Flip the board, and do it again, leaving a 1/4-1/2" piece holding the two halves together. Rip the leftover section with the hand saw and you're good to go.

DO NOT try to cut all the way through with the table saw, as things will get ugly during the second cut.

Barry

Reply to
B a r r y B u r k e J r .

That's the way I do it with one exception. I don't trust myself to perfectly split the line, so I start off by scribing from either face, leaving a "safe zone" of maybe 1/8" to 3/16". That way when I saw, I simply have to stay between the two scribe marks, and when I'm done, I already have the pieces marked for final planing to thickness.

The rest of your description matches the way I do it exactly. I think of it like cutting a very long tenon. Angle, saw, reverse piece, saw, place piece upright and join the two cuts. Repeat as necessary.

And never, never, never make a sawcut that you cannot see. I.e., let your previous cut guide you when it's on the back edge of the piece, and flip the board before you are cutting past the depth of that previous cut. It means you have to flip the piece quite often, but that's better than screwing up a nice piece of wood because you got in a hurry and had the saw wander when you made a blind sawcut. DAMHIKT.

Also, I tried making a frame re-saw, but either because of my technique or some problem with the way I built the thing, it tracks horribly. One of these days I'll figure out what's wrong with it, but in the meantime I just use an old ripsaw or one of those newish Stanley "sharksaw" things with the induction-hardened teeth and pseudo-Japanese tooth configuration. It works surprisingly well, and it's so cheap that I don't worry about using it on logs and such. (In fact, I keep one for log work and one for finer stuff.)

Chuck Vance

Reply to
Conan the Librarian
[...]

My selfmade frame re-saw has the very same problem, and i attribute it to insufficient blade mountin, allowing the blade to twist slightly. Once i figure out a way to improve that i will do so and report the results here... Another idea i am contemplating is a resaw fence that would be mounted on the blade of the frame saw.

Reply to
Juergen Hannappel

Thanks for a good tip.

Reply to
Dmitri

I wouldn't want to do it often, but also having no bandsaw, what I've done is cut a kerf on the top & bottom with the tablesaw, then saw out the remaining wood with a hand rip saw. The fence-guided kerfs left by the tablesaw blade will keep your hand saw from wandering. I have a good old Disston rip saw. The model # escapes me now but they're generally not too hard to find at yard sales or flea markets. Get it sharpened or learn to sharpen it yourself. It is a bit of work but it's surprising how fast it goes with a good hand saw. I use a hand plane to get rid of the raised portion of the surface that was cut by hand; the hand saw has a much narrower kerf than the table saw.

Reply to
Lawrence Wasserman

Please do. I've been looking at how the blade is fixed and the tensioning of the blade as potential problems on mine. I am afraid my stock is not quite thick enough, as when I tension the blade to the point where it gives off a high-pitched "plink" rather than a dull sound, the frame crosspieces flex noticeably.

How did you go about fixing the blade on yours? On the top I used a threaded rod with a nut on the exposed end and a slot cut for the blade to sit in. The blade is then pinned so it rests in a small slot in the frame while the pin is recessed into the frame. The other end is simply a hex bolt mortised into the frame so it doesn't twist, and the blade is again pinned into a slot cut into the end of the bolt.

It thought seriously about doing that, but had some concerns about the fence causing problems with binding rather than actually helping.

Chuck Vance

Reply to
Conan the Librarian

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