Starting is the hardest and most crucial part. Begin sawing at the near corner, taking great care to advance the blade simultaneously across the top and the edge facing you (2). in the photos) and then clamp the board in the vise angled slightly away from you (1). I’ve resawn plenty of large boards in a Workmate workbench, so it’s possible, but not recommended.īegin by scribing a line around a board from the reference face to the desired thickness (3/16 in. You’ll also need a sturdy bench and a strong vise due to the amount of force generated while resawing. If you only have room in the budget for one saw, I’d recommend a 7 ppi ripsaw. Conversely, when I cut veneer (usually about 1/16 in. For really aggressive jobs like cutting up backboards, I might go with something coarser (3½ to 4 ppi). For most resawing I use a 5½ ppi (points per inch*) ripsaw. Generally a typical handsaw with a 26-in.-long blade works well (more on big frame saws later). It’s important that the teeth be filed for ripcutting and have some set, but not too much. Here’s how I do it.Īs far as saws go, use the largest, most aggressive saw you deem appropriate for the job. If you’re just starting out with woodworking or looking to move toward a hand-tool approach, give resawing a shot and see how it goes. Sure, sawing by hand will usually take longer than feeding the board through a bandsaw, but unless you have a massive pile to cut, it’s not so bad. There’s a good reason for that, but what if you don’t have a bandsaw or one that’s up to the task? Most handsaws can be tuned up for this task without a tremendous amount of effort. Everything written about resawing mentions this and almost everything written about resawing is about bandsaws. The advantages of resawing are well known: It gives you complete control over dimensions (no need to limit yourself to only the dimensions available at the lumber yard) book-matching grain and getting the most economical use of your material. It also takes a good sharp saw (good and sharp, not necessarily great and perfectly sharpened). Neither thing is that hard or arduous, but it takes trying a few times to realize that. Of course, there’s also a lot of nervousness around following the line as well. Why is that? Well, pushing a handsaw through an 8-in.-wide board over a length of 18 in., for example, just looks awfully tiring. There is, however, one area where I can demystify things but can’t quite convince folks to try it for themselves and that’s hand-powered resawing. Sometimes I can even talk somebody into giving a traditional hand-tool method a legitimate shot in their own shop. In most cases, I can demystify the old ways and put them in context. Instead, I try to lead people to consider things momentarily from another point of view. I don’t ask anyone to give up their tablesaw. My goal has always been to get them to not only imagine it, but also to understand how hand techniques still have an important place in contemporary shops. “I can’t imagine having to do all of that by hand.” Woodworkers express this sentiment quite often as I demonstrate 18th-century cabinetmaking at Colonial Williamsburg.
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