Holding Wood Still?

[Jon Lanier]

Steve's method plus a this thing God gave me called a foot.

Works for me

Frank

The Lord giveth and the chainsaw taketh away.

[Roger Bell]

To tell the truth, although I have a sawbuck similar to the one I recommended to you for use in the shop setting, much of the time I cut raw blanks in the woods rather than pack out the blanks and all the attendant waste. Often I might have to pack out a few blanks some distance to the vehicle, in addition to the saw and the gas, etc. I do use some saw techniques that I would in no way recommend to anyone who is not expert and long experienced with the power saw at the advanced level. Stick with the long, slow and perfectly safe ways and you will never go wrong. I also use my foot from time to time, not that I would ever recommend that to you, either. It is perfectly safe, sometimes for some people, depending.

For your revised question, I did see a post somewhere awhile back where a guy drilled some dog holes in a trestle-like sawbuck and then used the fancy Veritas (Lee Valley) hold down bench hook to secure the block for corner trimming. Looked to me like it could work fine as long as the work held in the hook and the operator had firm control of the saw and would never, ever, allow the chain to hit the metal hold down.

Simple hold down hooks can be had for cheap from other suppliers for under $10 and will work as well.