Today I began a little reverse engineering project for a friend. He saved a sofa from the junk heap, but it was missing one cushion support frame. I told him it shouldn’t be too hard to make a matching one. So here’s what the original one looks like:
The width of those outer boards is pretty close to 2″, so I figured it would just take a couple rips of a 2×4 to get these parts. I ran a line down the 2×4 with my marking gauge (although it’s never satisfying trying to cut with the grain), out comes the ryoba, and let the show begin!
As you can see, I have zero clamping options with my current setup. How do you go about resawing with a handsaw anyway? I started on one end and changed to the other end when it got too difficult. My saw stayed with the line on the top, but on the bottom it was a different matter. Here’s a shot of the bottom of the board after I finished my resawing. Notice how I had to stop in mid-cut and just finish coming from the original direction. Oops.
Needless to say, it don’t look so hot.
Because I need to cut some 1/2″ mortises in this 3/4″ wood, this gack left me with too little room to work with, so I’m going to have to scrap this attempt.
If any of you have any tips on resawing with a handsaw, I’m all ears! But in retrospect, here’s what I think I’ll do differently:
- Clamp a board on either side of the board I’m cutting, aligned with my line. The boards will act as a guide for my saw. As long as I keep my blade flush against the clamped boards, my line should be straight.
- Position the board straight up and down and just cut down from top to bottom, rather than along the face of the board. Seems like I’d have a more consistent cut that way. If I have two boards clamped on the outside, the whole apparatus would probably be heavy and stable enough that I could just pin it against the bench with my other arm while sawing.
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August 4, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Rick Waters
Eric,
It looks like you could clamp it to your worksurface vertically. In the second picture above, it looks like a couple of feet to your left you have access to the top and bottom of the work surface you are using. You could clamp a small board to the table top, thenuse the back edge of that board as a surface for another set of clamps secured to both the board and your work piece. It would call for about 4 clamps, but it looks like could be done. Even with C clamps.
Just a thought though, since I’ve never hand cut a board before. So, take that into consideration too…
August 4, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Luke Townsley
I had a similar problem recently on a similarly sized board. I was trying to cut a slight angle with a western handsaw. Perhaps in my case setting it up vertically with a mirror to see the line in the back would be one option.
Sort of like you, I definitely got the idea that I was missing something pretty important as far as technique or setup goes.
August 4, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Eric
Rick: Hey, that just might work with my current setup!
Luke: I think another mistake I made was that when I started on the other end, I only tracked along one line. On the near side, I drew a perpendicular line down the end grain and tracked along two lines, like you should. On the far side, I forgot or was too lazy to draw that perpendicular line, so my saw cut may have even started out skewed. D’oh!
September 8, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Dan
Hey Eric,
I have never been able to rip straight for more than a few inches with a Japanese style saw. For me, western saws just work better. Also, I made a giant leap forward in ripping (crosscutting too) when I started using my saw bench.
On a completely different tack, you might try splitting out your pieces. It depends a lot on the wood, but I am frequently surprised by how straight I can split. A hatchet and club or a wide chisel and mallet should do the trick – then just clean up with a plane.
I hope the move is going well, and not too crazy!
- Dan
March 27, 2009 at 7:34 am
Gye Greene
If you don’t need to save the waste portion, you can use a scrub plane to hog off the excess, down to the line. Or, a hatchet (takes a little practice, so I’ve heard), close to the line, then handplane the remainder.
–GG
March 27, 2009 at 7:41 am
Gye Greene
Sorry — on a dial-up connection, so your photos hadn’t loaded yet.
In situations like yours, I think it was in Frank Klauz (sp?) book that he suggests drawing lines down both faces and the end; cutting into one corner (i.e. the end plus beginning one face); then using the kerf as a guide and cutting the other face — and continuing to alternate which face you’re making progress on, and which is just “floating”, serving as a guide for the blade.
Again, haven’t tried this yet… (No, wait — I think I have.)
–gg