Comments on: Yeah. A Bandsaw Would Be Nice.

By: Gye Greene

Gye Greene — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:41:01 +0000

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

By: Gye Greene

Gye Greene — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:34:13 +0000

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

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 04:22:47 +0000

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

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 01:29:39 +0000

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!

By: Luke Townsley

Luke Townsley — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:27:49 +0000

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.

By: Rick Waters

Rick Waters — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:11:28 +0000

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…