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Thread: Resaw

  1. #1
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    Resaw

    If one were to resaw lumber with a handsaw what would be the best saw/method. I would be dealing mostly with 10-12'' wide cherry and maple. I am sure it'll involve a lot of calorie burning.

  2. #2
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    I can answer my own post,it ain't worth it! I should have researched before I posted. It looks to be a waste of time as I could be building something. That and is too much hard work in FL heat.

  3. #3
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    If one were to resaw lumber with a handsaw what would be the best saw/method.
    What is called a pit saw and a loyal friend. They might not be such a loyal friend if you make them take the bottom end of the saw.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jerry Thompson View Post
    If one were to resaw lumber with a handsaw what would be the best saw/method. I would be dealing mostly with 10-12'' wide cherry and maple. I am sure it'll involve a lot of calorie burning.
    Quote Originally Posted by Jerry Thompson View Post
    I can answer my own post,it ain't worth it! I should have researched before I posted. It looks to be a waste of time as I could be building something. That and is too much hard work in FL heat.
    Every additional inch of resaw thickness multiplies the time it takes by about 1.5X, in my experience. I've only resawn cherry up to about 5" and it was a lot of work. 10-12" might be a little crazy.

    In theory, bigger teeth go faster and clog less. In practice, you have to be a big enough ape to push said big teeth effectively. I know they say "let the saw do the work" but, c'mon, really. In the midst of my resawing, I bought a 26" saw with 4 or 4.5 ppi. Great saw, but for me it was actually slower and more effort. I went back to a 7-point.

  5. #5
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    Last edited by David Posey; 05-08-2012 at 10:53 PM.

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  7. #7
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    This may not be very helpful advice but..... Don't do it, its not worth the time and effort. I've did it with a 9-10" piece of cherry once, it was awful, took all day, and the results were disappointing. In one instance, I had sawed accurately to the line both sides of the wood, but there was an exceptionally hard area in the center and the saw actually wandered way off the line inside the board. This was infuriating after spending several hours sweating and sawing to the lines on the outside of the board - there was no way to tell the cut was off until I had completed the resaw.

    Its not bad on pieces that are say 4-6" wide, but beyond that gets pretty rough. 10-12" wide pieces of cherry and maple will be an absolute nightmare, unless you maybe have a huge two-person frame saw. Find someone with a bandsaw or just take the loss and get your wood thicknesses to the dimension you want.
    Last edited by Chris Griggs; 05-09-2012 at 7:50 AM.

  8. Quote Originally Posted by Jerry Thompson View Post
    If one were to resaw lumber with a handsaw what would be the best saw/method. I would be dealing mostly with 10-12'' wide cherry and maple. I am sure it'll involve a lot of calorie burning.
    Only with a large frame saw. You can build one and use a portion of a bandsaw blade in it. Cheack out the book: Woodworking, the Right Technique - shows a big one-man resaw.

  9. #9
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    I will +1 everyone that says not to bother.

    Unless you have a frame saw with a crazy tooth count, like 2 tpi, it just takes forever. I have a big 6tpi thumbhole rip saw. I resawed a 10"x24" piece one time. Took me forever and wasn't worth it.

  10. #10
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    I've done it.

    Once finished, I bought a bandsaw.
    This is one of those tasks for which machines excel.
    P1030823.jpg

  11. #11
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    Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine
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    I think that resawing such width 10 inches is a penalty. Earlier in Soviet Union cutting of (sawing) of trees by hand and ripping by hand was a job for imprisoned people - "lesopoval". So it is wasting your time, but if you have not any other possibility .....

  12. #12
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    When I was making my first guitar,I couldn't find quartered spruce in Ketchikan,Alaska,where they were milling millions of bd. ft.,but sending it all to Korea after the war.A member of our church had a small shipyard,and gave me a 1" thick slab 24" square. I couldn't bear to plane that slab down to 1/8" thick,or even to saw it down the center to make book matched resawed pieces. So,I took several shop class periods to hand saw the whole piece into 2 thinner pieces!!

    I agree it is just too much trouble. I should have sawn the slab into 2 pcs. 12" x 24",then resawed one of them,but at the time,I liked the idea of having a 1 piece top. Such was childhood folly.

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