Hand Saw Success

[Tim Null]

Well, I finally feel like a hand tool user. Sure I have used my planes to adjust a fit here and smooth a surface there. I have chiseled a few mortices (16 in 3 inch hard maple in my workbench!), but I have not really used my handsaws on a project.

I have tried some practice dovetails, but none by hand on a project. I have test cut with my new handsaws, but not for a project.

Yesterday I was in a bind. I am making a mandolin holder for my father. It will hold three instruments.

The top piece has a reverse "R" shaped cut out that the neck sits in. This piece is 30" long and has three of these.

I could do the end one on the bandsaw, but the middle I could not. My bandsaw did not have the reach.

So I marked out the shape and set it in my vice. I remembered what I saw Christopher Schwarz demonstrate about precise cuts on Roy's show. So after making a cut with my marking knife just to the waste side of the line, I lined up the cut using the corner and lines/marks on two sides.

My new LV crosscut carcass saw worked perfectly and the cut was smooth and much easier than I thought. I was able to make several cuts and remove the majority of the waste and then finish the inside cuts on the bandsaw, which were not possible with the handsaws.

The resulting "R" shape was as smooth for the middle one as the one on the end that I did on the bandsaw alone. In fact it was so easy with the handsaw that I did the other end the same way, instead of remarking it on the opposite side so I could turn it over and make the cuts on the bandsaw.

This is the first time using a handsaw actually felt more efficient than using a powered saw.

I still have no real desire to rip large stock with a handsaw, that will be the job for my SawStop, but I will reach for my handsaws more often and with more confidence in the future.

My stable right now is:
-Wenzloff panel 10ppi crosscut
-Grammercy Sash
-Grammercy dovetail
-LV carcass rip and crosscut

I have been eyeballing a BadAxe tenon, known as the Jack saw, which I now can't wait to get my hands on.

[harry strasil]

Congrats, the slope is slippery, some of us have never slid down the slope, we started as a Neander Galoot. Gives new meaning to the term "Personal Pride" and "I did it by Hand"! Welcome to the Haven.

[Bill Houghton]

That's one of those funny skills that are incomprehensible until your body learns how, and then they're so simple and such fun that you wonder why it was ever an issue. Congratulations.

[Jim Koepke]

Welcome to the slippery slope of hand tools.

Most of my cutting is done by hand since I do not have a table saw. Even a long board with a sharp saw is almost as fast to mark and rip by hand than to set up a table saw and make all that noise with the screaming electrons.

jtk

[Johnny Kleso]

I remember the day I thought to use an axe to split a short board in two and plane it to size as my moment I was a hand tool user ..

Look out for the hill :)

[Tony Shea]

Very slippery slope indeed and it looks as though you've got a good start down it already with that nice collection of saws. You certainly need to learn to put those things to good use as you will not regret the speed and accuracy that can be obtained. My table saw has become one of the least used tools in my shop and is covered with dust at the moment. If I can find a way to cut by hand I absolutely will. Like you've said though, ripping straight lines is where my TS does get its' workout. I like to rip shorter boards by hand and only when I have a few. But the table saw is hard to beat in accuracy and speed when it comes to this task.

My goal and mindset as a WW has definitly changed since I've become a hand tool enthusiast and feel it is for the better. Good luck and welcome steep slope.

[Russell Sansom]

Don't be afraid to rip. Find a sharp 6 or 7 from somewhere, figure a out knee-high saw bench ( same as your cross cut bench ), and give it a try. You'll be amazed. The time it takes is sort of eerie. If feels like the job will never finish and a couple strokes later you're 8 inches along. It's "people power" at its finest.