re-sawing advice

[Joe A Faulkner]

I need to re-saw about 24 linear feet of cherry for a bookshelf. I can break the boards down to 3' in length before resawing. Two of the boards will be 1x10's. The others will be 1x8's. I don't own a bandsaw, and do not have access to one. I am considering a bow saw. For those of you who re-saw by hand, do you remember your learning curve? I really don't want to learn on cherry, so I likely will practice on some popular. Also, any recommendations for a bow saw?

The plans call for floating 1/4" panels in the sides, and ship-lapped 1/4" boards for the back. The shelf only stands 40" tall.

[Jim Matthews]

I just did it, in cherry for shop made veneer.

I use a gauge to scribe parallel lines, all the way around, so deep as I can.
I then use a steady chisel or marking knife to take out the material between them,
so that my saw will have a kerf starter.

I like to begin with a backsaw to get things started.

Remember that you're ripping, and choose your blade accordingly.
It's got to be sharp - you'll never get a clean finish with a dull blade.

You must cut the corners off first, and meet in the middle.
I have more difficulty keeping everything on the same plane, toward the middle
of the board. It's slow going.

Here's a montage of the method I use, by somebody that who gets the results we're after:

http://www.closegrain.com/2012/10/resawing-by-hand.html

Note that he's using a traditional Western ripsaw - that's REALLY sharp.

I only resaw when I've got three times the thickness to work with.
I need enough wiggle room to plane the shop veneer to thickness.

I've done this three-four times and it's getting better, but at 10" you'll be pushing a lot of steel through the kerf.

Steve Branam's article mentions the essential elements I glossed over the first time:
wax the blade, to minimize drag. Flip the board frequently.

At least have a mirror on the opposite side of the board to check your progress.

[Sean Hughto]

I urge you to make friends with someone with a bandsaw. Or maybe go to a local cabinet shop or woodworkers club with a shop.

Do you have a table saw? Do you have enough thickness to tolerate a 1/8th kerf? If so, let the table saw do as much as possible and then make quick work of whats left in the middle with a rip saw.

[Warren Mickley]

I have been resawing by hand for about forty years. At first I used a rip saw and sawed mostly in the 4 to 6 inch range. In 1980 I made a veneer saw, a 2 inch blade stretched between two solid arms in a frame. I soon was sawing in the 12 inch range.

As a beginner, I sawed the corners first as many recommend, and I sometimes sawed diagonally down alternate sides. With stuff in the 8 to 12 inch range, one can get an awful lot of bowing in the middle of the cut, so that one board is concave, the other convex. I found that sawing straight across gave a much truer surface in the middle of the board. I sometimes saw at a slight angle, like 10 degrees from straight across the board, but in any event keeping a constant angle seems to be best.

If your design will allow it I would consider cutting the 10 inch board into two 5 inch boards, which would be easier. Don't force the saw. If you get slightly off your line, just gently work your way back to the line. Putting a lot of twist on the saw in an effort to get back to the line quickly will make the saw bow in the middle.

[Doug Bowman]

I agree with Sean. Try hard to find a friend with a bandsaw. I have attempted some small scale hand redrawing and I cannot imagine trying 10" wide by 3 feet long.

[David Weaver]

You can build a saw like warren's either by mutiliating an old pitted rip saw (28 inches long) or buying one of the longest putsch rip blades, which aren't anything spectacular but they do work fine, especially once you have sharpened them.

If I were doing it, and I don't have a frame saw (thus would use a carpenter's saw), I would build a quickie fixture on a saw bench (you can build the nastiest saw bench you could think of out of a 2x12 in an hour and then cut a 1x8 slot right in the middle of it to resaw, and I would sit and saw with the saw blade toward me). Then I would plow the narrowest groove I could down the length of the boards on both sides and saw at about a 10 degree angle as warren says.

I've got several rip saws and I keep one of them at very aggressive rip only for very thick boards and resawing . I'd imagine I could probably resaw a 3 foot long 8 inch board in 15 or 20 minutes. I haven't resawn anything over 6 probably, but I can saw 3 feet of 8/4 with it in a minute and a half or two without hurrying, and I have resawn lengths of beech for blanks with no problem. Beech and cherry are both nice woods to rip.

I don't resaw as often as warren, though. i have an 18" bandsaw and I usually rip by hand for sport (as in exercise). There is something missing to me on a project that I don't have to hurry on if I don't rip by hand - a tactile appreciation for what is going on. Nothing spiritual or quacky, but something akin to striking a golf ball, or biting into something that has been cooked with perfect texture - and that's taken away when I just feed everything through the bandsaw.

[Edward Clarke]

Take a look at the Unplugged Woodshop. That guy posted a video a couple of days ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtmswWZ4Lvo#t=86

That kerfing saw that he's using makes the whole thing a lot easier.

[Winton Applegate]

I am Mr. Hand tool. I even ride my bicycle to work every day.
Human powered allllllll the way
but
when it comes to resawing.
resawing long stock especailly
resawing long wide stock even more
well
I got two things to say
#1



and
#2

http://www.lagunatools.com/bandsaws

Trust me on that one.

I been here quite a lot




But I recomend being here

[Shawn Pixley]

I like handtools as much as the next guy, but that just sounds like drudgery. I suggest finding someone with a bandsaw.

[Mike Allen1010]

I saw every thing with hand saws (especially since my BS has been 10-7 for some time) and re-sawing is a challenge. Check out Tom Findgens blog -really cool kerfing plane- I'm definitely building one just for this reason.

As Jim and David mentioned; Establishing the guiding kerf is key. Every other sawing task you can pretty easily saw right to layout line- except re-sawing.

Absent a kerfing plane, TS, plow plane, knife/Chisel, very tough not to wander on exit side. For me rip panel saw is more accurate,less wandering than a bow saw.

Cheers Mike

[Winton Applegate]

10" x 3 feet long actually isn't bad; it is the long planks that get silly. On the order of 8 feet and longer. You got to stand on something or have the board in a pit or bend over way too much while having the board way off the floor. I mean you either have to stand on the edge or clamp it in the vise. It gets . . . doing it by your self . . . you really need a second person on the other end of the saw for the long stuff . . . it gets . . .
silly.

[Winton Applegate]

I spent quite a bit of time with these guys


and they are good for four or five inch wide and walnut etc.
When you get into 8" and 10" wide and harder wood it is really worth having the loooooong blade and much deeper gullets of the bandsaw blade I put in the frame saw and the two handles you can really start to get your legs and body weight into.

When resawing the wide stuff you start to gain an appreciation for the term HORSE power.
As in . . . a human ain't.

And following the line on the back side and as was mentioned flipping the board.
You just get tired of reorienting the plank to stay on track on long stock.

[David Weaver]

Winton, doesn't campy make something that hooks a bike to a reciprocating human powered bandsaw?

[Winton Applegate]

Hey,
It is off the subject but I ran into this YouTube
http://www.marthastewart.com/926570/...d-shoji-screen

While looking for Toshio resawing a wide board (not over three feet long though).

I have pics in a book is all. I was hoping for a YouTube of him resawing. He is amazing. Oh well. I VHSed this vid a long time ago. It is cool to see it online.
I thought someone else might like it.

Back to resawing.
Here is Toshio showing us how a BIG DOG does it. IMPRESSIVE !






That's from this book
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Shoji-T...s=toshio+odate


And here is where I got my saw design from








He kerfs it with the table saw. May as well use a bandsaw if we are going to introduce a table saw.

That's from this book

http://www.amazon.com/Woodworking-Te...ight+technique


And finally Frank Klausz and his brother fooling around for old times sake using a saw similar to my long frame saw.
This is the best way I have found. This way there are eyeballs on both sides of the plank watching the line.

[Winton Applegate]

Winton, doesn't campy make something that hooks a bike to a reciprocating human powered bandsaw?

Yes. But you or I can't afford it.
Ha, ha,
have you priced that stuff lately.
At least they have a sense of humor.

They make satellite parts too. I wonder how many they sell when there are several companies placing bids.

The bike I ride everyday to work is most all Campy but working man's Campy from the eighties.