Does Anyone Use a Kerfing Plane?

[Jimmy Harris]

Does anyone use a kerfing plane when resawing? I have most everything I need to make one. And when I'm resawing, I often have problems staying on track on the back side. I know I should just flip my wood more often and work on my saw technique, but I get lazy when resawing and run into issues because of it from time to time. So I'm wondering if a kerfing plane would help with that, or if I'd just be wasting my time building something I'd use a handful of times and then deciding it was just adding more work without much benefit.

What's your experience?

[Rob Luter]

I have in the past. Once. I’m old and increasingly feeble. I use a band saw.

[steven c newman]

I just use a tablesaw, to plough a kerf all the way around the board being resawn....then the D8 takes over from there..

[Jimmy Harris]

I just use a tablesaw, to plough a kerf all the way around the board being resawn....then the D8 takes over from there..

Yeah, I don't have a table saw. But I have done that before and it does work.

[David Godbold]

I wonder how many folks flatten a face before resawing by hand. I like the idea of the kerfing plane but I guess my resawing tends to follow two patterns:
1. 1 inch or thicker board that is around 4 to 14 inches wide and less than 4 ft long. For these boards I don’t flatten a face first so a kerfing plane would not help me. (Because it would just make a crooked kerf following the nonflattened face.) For this operation I use a 3 tpi hand saw that has a wide-ish set. (I did try putting the board in the vice sideways and using a straight edge and a thicker bladed marking knife to cut in a wide-ish kerf. However the big toothed saw fully eats my premarked kerf so it didn’t feel value added to cut in the starter kerf ahead of time. Perhaps if I had been more diligent in making a wide enough pre-kerf?). Seems like I remember doing this with oak, pine and cherry if I’m not mistaken. All were kiln dried and occasionally prone to closing on the sawplate indicating some case hardening but nothing too dramatic. Not sure I would use this saw or instead choose the one described below for something much harder like an “exotic wood “. In general this saw has good balanced set and doesn’t tend to get pushed around too bad by the boards kerf closing so wandering and steering are not a problem. (Probably also worth noting that I haven’t had to worry too much about twist or wind in these boards as the rough lumber supplier supplies them well enough. If the boards were in wind then my straight edge marking would bind the sawplate. If in wind then place your board in your untwisting machine first.)
2. Resawing 1 inch or less thickness that tends to be 8 to 12 inches wide and less than 2 foot long (for making drawer bottoms and such). For this operation I do flatten both sides first (but not bothered with making them parallel; however you do have to make sure you layout off the same face all the way around) because it is easier to flatten a thicker board than a thinner one. For this I use a 5.5 tpi rip saw with very little set. In fact the set is so low that steering takes time and focus. Furthermore case hardening or board movement has to be managed. I have found that because the set is so low it is sensitive to anything that would drive it offline so that an advanced kerf hasn’t been enough. Must really focus on form and being quick to react to any dalliance. I have done this operation with poplar, cherry, white oak, and walnut if I remember correctly.

I still really like the idea of a kerfing plane and, like you intend to build one, one day, but for now I don’t think it matches up well with my saws or me. Perhaps if I had a more traditional amount of set on the 5.5tpi. Probably also worth noting I don’t own a bandsaw or a jointer and I am in good enough health to enjoy these occasional operations ( and my mind is flawed enough to compel me to do it).

Maybe I should mention that my experiments with precutting the shallow kerf around the board to see if I could turn off my brain and just saw showed me that I had to put just as much focus in steering to keep the saw in the right place.

Sorry for typing so much. I guess in summary I think the kerf plane may be a great idea if you are resawing already flat boards with a saw that has a just right amount of set. I would really like to hear from someone that uses a kerf plane regularly what saws and board conditions go with it. And if they have a reduction in how much they have to watch the line to stay on track. I would imagine that very experienced sawyers rarely actively think about steering so why would they bother with the kerf plane?

[Phil Mueller]

I made a kerfing saw from an old stair saw. I refiled the teeth and made it so I could add shims to adjust the thickness. I go about 1/8” thicker than what I want the finished piece to be. Has improved my re-sawing quite a bit.

IMG_0760.jpg IMG_0759.jpg

[Ben Ellenberger]

I just use a 5 tpi handsaw and a line marked with a gauge for resawing. I’m in the same boat as you, I’ve thought about making one to try it, but figured it would just end up unused in a drawer.

I am diligent about flipping pieces regularly while re-sawing and I wouldn’t try to resaw anything wider than about 6 inches or so. I might reconsider making one if I had a project that called for resawing wider boards.

[Jimmy Harris]

Thanks for the input. I might put this on the back burner for when I'm bored and need a medium sized project to fill some time. I'm really wondering how well a 1/2" or so kerf will keep a saw straight. I guess I could run some experiments to find out. I know a deep kerf does a wonderful job, but kerfing planes don't go all that deep, so that's part of my hesitation. That, and what I'm doing now works, assuming I put in the effort and focus. So it wouldn't open up new doors for me, but at best make things a bit easier.

And I always flatten at least one side of a board before resawing, if not both sides, and joint an edge. I never thought to use a straight edge to mark a resaw cut before. But, David's post does introduce me to the idea of getting around that, should the need arise. It might be a good idea with some boards that have a little wind or warp to them, so I have maximum material to work with after the resawing lets some of those internal stresses out.

[steven c newman]

Note: For those that want to try the tablesaw as a Kerfing Tool...make sure the kerf it leaves matches the kerf the rip saw will make....otherwise, you will need a plane...
Resaw, half way there .JPG
Just a heads up...

[Quino Terceño]

Hi all, first post!

I use a Luban 043 small plow plane. As sold by Workshopheaven in the UK comes with a Kerfing saw. It is a very well executed plane, and the saw attachement works as expected. It is followed by a rip cut Temagori-Nokogiri (variable pitch 3.6 - 5 tpi). I find it is a very enjoyable setup.