Although I can cut in a straight line, I cannot seem to keep the saw vertical. Are there any guides or supports I can buy. Frankly I wouldn't know what to search for.
I am shortly going to have cut oak upstands for the back of a desk/bench and I don't want to mess it up.
You need a 'mitre block'.
You'll just need to make sure the one you get is deep enough to handle the wood you want to cut.
Or, get a cheap powered chop saw, basic ones from around £50.
Do you mean at right angle to the wood. A good sharp saw should help or the old trick by starting off the cut against your thumb
A long time ago, I had a handful of important mitres to cut on a fireplace shelf, I think the tool I bought was from Bahco (not seen it for ages) it was solid metal with a spring blade to hold the saw tight.
Closest I can see now is this, but it only takes small japanese blades rather than a handsaw.
It might come down to: posture, height of the saw bench, saw sharpness or being in too much of a hurry - try experimenting. I suppose you could make yourself a wooden "L" that you can hold the saw against if all else fails, but better to correct the technique. If the quality of the cut is important then the sensible answer would be to not use a hand saw or, if it's a rip cut, to cut slightly off the line and trim with a router or circular saw.
A decent sharp tenon saw helps - it doesn't have to be that expensive.
Clamp a block of wood that is true and square to the piece you are going to cut and run your saw down the edge of that block. Consider the block of wood as already having cut 50%+ of the depth.
It also helps if you mark your cut line on at least three sides so that you can see if the saw is going off vertical.
Get a mitre block
but possibly one that is suited to the size of your work piece. I have 3 different sizes. I have also found some plastic mitre blocks a bit sloppy in that the slit for the saw blade is too wide allowing the blade to wander too much. My wooden mitre blocks are better than my couple of plastic ones. You may find it helpful to clamp the work piece in the mitre block to stop it moving. I quite often use a wedges made from scrap wood to hold the work-piece tight in the mitre block.
use a bench saw, or a hand held circular saw (having checked squareness of the blade) with a saw board. Old-time joiners spent the start of their apprenticeships learning how to saw well, most of us don't have the time and some just don't have the inclination or aptitude anyway, but we have the technology. Or you can use a straight bit of 4x2 clamped along the cut as a guide for your handsaw.
Use a tenon saw and make up your own 'mitre block' out of two lengths of scrap blockboard screwed at right angles.
As we were taught at school
Thumb, Finger, Three fingers Thumb goes in the grip (or around) Index finger points along the blade Three fingers go in the grip Stand comfortably with the saw, forearm & shoulder in line.
If doing this just by hand, there are some tricks that certainly help.
Marking your cut both across *and* down is one of the most important things. Then establishing your horizontal cut and progressing that down half to three quarters of an inch. Then you need to start dropping your hand so that the saw angle rises - the tip pointing up - now you are cutting with just the heel of the saw, down on the side you can see. The tip of the saw is not cutting further into the far edge. Once you are some way down the side facing you, you now have two square cuts, that will help guide the saw in both axis for the rest of the cut.
The master demonstrator of this technique is Paul Sellers:
Yup, loads... Mitre gauge, mitre box, saw box etc.
These kind of things:
Practice on some cheap offcuts of pine first :-)
Great reason to buy yourself a sliding mitre saw.
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