Ripping Narrow Stock

[John Dykes]

I have a project that I'm attempting fully without power... the ubiquitous woodworking school "step stool." About 14" high, 20" long, and about 12" wide (deep). It's a required project for my class I'm taking at Red Rocks... Plan on making it a TV stand for my son. Will be gluing up the main board with ambrosia maple and edged in walnut.

Thus far I haven't struggled too much. I've cross cut the 8" maple and 5" walnut to the above lengths, and have ripped the 5" in half. All a bit rough at this point.

Though the deed is done, I'm wondering if there is a better way to rip narrow stock by hand. That is, taking a 5" wide piece of walnut, setting 2" on the edge of a metal Borg sawhorse, clamping a small corner of the board with one knee on top, and wrestling a full size Disston #12 to make this cut was a challenge. I tracked the line very well, surprisingly well in fact - on the top at least. I wasn't fully perpendicular on these cuts and cut away from the line about 1/4" on the bottom - if that makes sense...

Anyhow - question is - ripping narrow stock. 5"-ish or less in half... or similar operations. Just hit me to perhaps clamp it in my twin screw and cut it down vertically.... eh?

Hope to utilize secret miter dovetails in the bench. Tried a few sets this weekend in pine... I think many would be surprised about how easy it is.... (Err... "easy" defined as not as impossible as I've always thought.) Followed the Charlesworth book (vol 1) - folks should try it.

[Jose Kilpatrick]

I have fashioned some Square L shaped jigs from pieces of scarp that clamp to the board to rest the saw against to keep it square. But after some practice, I found that focus, concentration and awareness of my blade angle on every stroke is just as effective.
It may come with experience for some, or relearning for others.
The BIGGEST factor in the improvement of my wood working stems DIRECTLY from teaching myself to slow down, as well as learning that it's ok to walk away from a project unfinished multiple times.
Seems simple in retrospect, but some of us are just wired to get finished quickly.
I don't know if this comes with age, experience or necessity, but, once you start tackling projects with this mind set, speed and accuracy develop in unison over time consistently. (Until your 5 year old wants to hang out with you in your shop. That's another story of patience altogether.)

[Wilbur Pan]

Hi John,

A few thoughts:

One thing that will help with a long rip is to mark your cut line on both sides of the board, and flip the board over every so often as you cut. This will tend to average out any out of squareness of your cut.

What is the tpi on your saw? Are you sure it's appropriate for the thickness of your stock?

Have you considered using a Japanese saw? The fact that the cut is made on the pull stroke "clamps" the board to whatever you're supporting it on. That's one big reason why I like using Japanese saws.

[Robert Rozaieski]

John,

This is where a saw bench comes in handy. My saw bench is about 18" tall and has a top that is about 8" wide. You put the board on the bench and hold it with your knee but overhang the board off the end of the bench, not over the side. Saw half way through the length of the board, turn it around and saw from the other end meeting your cuts in the middle. A vise can work but the angle is awkward. Sometime I'll use a hand screw to clamp the board to the front of the saw bench. I apologize as you can't really see the saw bench in this picture but you get the idea. This board was only about 3" wide.


As for keeping the cut plumb, you need to keep your eye right above the saw back so that all you see is the top edge of the saw. You need to trust yourself that once you start your saw cut straight it will continue to track straight. You can stop and check and make any corrections once in awhile but while sawing try to keep your eye directly over top of the saw. If you are looking at the side of the saw you will have a tendancy to tip toward that side resulting in an unsquare cut. Just takes a couple of practice cuts to get the hang of it. The low saw bench helps too. You can't get over top of the saw on a waist high sawhorse. Sawhorses are fine for rough crosscutting but for long straight rips they can be tough. I use the back of my my shaving horse as a second saw bench when I need to cut long stock. My saw bench looks just like this but without the shaving horse parts and it's only about 30" long.

[Jim Koepke]

One trick I have seen when using a saw horse is to cut a slot length wise in between the legs of the horse and cut through the horse when ripping.

Others use a pair of horses or saw tables with a "birds mouth" at the end of one and push the board onto the second horse or table as the cut is moving along.

There are many ways to do the same thing, hopefully others will chime in.

Search past threads here on the Creek for saw tables and you will run into a few great ideas.

jim

[John Dykes]

Step 1 - build a real saw bench! That's just been pushed to #1 on my projects list....

As far as TPI - the board was 14" long, 5" wide, 1" thick - and the saw is a Disston #12 rip cut at 5.5 tpi. Seemed like a big saw for a little piece - but outside of a small tenon saw, it's all I had...

Again, thanks for the help!

[Robert Rozaieski]

John, I regularly use a 5.5 PPI rip saw to rip 4/4 stock so your saw should be fine. I think the saw bench will really help you. You really need to be able to get over top of the piece to have good control and use the full stroke of the saw effectively.

[Adam Cherubini]

John, there's video of me sawing that may help you on my blog. www.artsandmysteries.com No trick to narrow stock. Short narrow stock is to be avoided, however.

Adam

[Chuck Nickerson]

Let me expand on Adam's post. When dimensioning stock with handsaws, the sequence of operations can be as important as with power tools. Based on the 30 hours I've spent handsawing stock the past two months (mostly getting ready for Adam's class in March), I rip to width first (longer pieces), then crosscut to length.

[John Dykes]

Adam -

Found the video, thanks.

From my earlier post:

I tracked the line very well, surprisingly well in fact - on the top at least. I wasn't fully perpendicular on these cuts and cut away from the line about 1/4" on the bottom - if that makes sense...

Quote from Adam's video:

I've done a pretty good job holding this line... But I've kinda blown it on the back. I'm actually happy with that... That's on a good day!

There is hope my friends... There is hope!