Reassign with a handsaw

[Russell Johnson]

Hello everyone. I'm mostly a machine woodworker but I want want to resaw some 6" boards and my bandsaw is not that wide and doing it with a table saw has visions of a emergency room visit. So I don't want to spend a bunch of money and found where some have done this with a handsaw. I tried on a 4" wide poplar with a 15" 8tpi saw. Mostly ok except for 1/16 devation. But as I was doing this I thought I might need a longer saw is 15" acceptable or would 22" work? Any saw suggestions given that I'm a cheapskate? I was considering a 22" Pony from Woodcraft.

[David Weaver]

You need a rip toothed handsaw or a frame saw (a rip toothed handsaw would make the most sense with in combination with your TS).

I haven't seen anything with machine cut induction hardened teeth that rips well. You could slog through this task with them, but they really are the wrong tool to do the work.

Given that you have a TS, I would cut a groove on each side of the board, and if you're not comfortable with a deep groove, at least cut one a half inch deep or so to guide a handsaw. Your risk of kickback, or at least of the dangerous kickback where the piece binds between the blade is very low with that, and you can keep the blade down and keep your fingers from it pretty easily.

I don't know what you consider "a lot" of money, but you should be able to find a good rip handsaw for about 50 bucks - sharp - if you look for one.

It is up to you whether or not, as a machine woodworker, you want to spend the money - especially if this is a one-time shot.

[Russell Johnson]

Thank you for the suggestion. I like the precut idea with table saw as getting the cut started was the hard part.

[Jim Koepke]

A good tutorial on sawing can be found at:

http://blip.tv/file/2399481

jtk

[Andrae Covington]

...But as I was doing this I thought I might need a longer saw is 15" acceptable or would 22" work?...

Ideally, the saw blade should be as long as your arm stroke, plus a little extra so the blade doesn't hop out of the cut. Longer saw = longer strokes = less work.:) Also coarse teeth will make things go faster and be less likely to clog. If you can find an old rip saw at garage sales, flea markets, craigslist, etc., the most common size is 26", but 28" and even 30" were made. Of course it might be as dull as a butter knife... but if you can get one that's sharp (or learn to sharpen it... :D), it would work much better than the impulse-hardened things available today. If you'd rather buy something new... looking at Woodcraft's options... perhaps the Putsch 24" rip saw. Many of us here would probably turn our noses up at it, but I'm pretty sure it would be an improvement over the Pony.

[Andy Margeson]

I tried this recently on a 8 inch wide alder board and was astonished by how well it worked. The tablesaw kerf really keeps the handsaw tracking straight and it goes quite fast. I have no experience or talent with handsaws but never got outside the thin kerf from the tablesaw. I have found half a dozen old D8 saws for $2 apiece at garage sales. Ripsaws are somewhat harder to find than crosscut ones, but they're out there. It was a definite motivator to get into handsaws but I doubt I could do it without the tablesaw kerf.

BTW, when you're finished you have a guide along both edges of the board that makes planing the resawn boards very easy. Not pure handtools, but great training wheels for a beginner.

[David Weaver]

Anyone who wants to do pure hand tools or who doesn't have a TS can plow a 1/8th groove with a plow plane and do the same thing. It'll definitely take longer, though.

[george wilson]

There's not much of a big deal about resawing a 6" board with a 10" table saw. I've done it countless times when I had no bandsaw. I just hated wasting 1/8" of nice wood on every cut. If you don't want to cut ALL the way through with the table saw,leave 1" in the center of the board to finish resawing with the hand saw. It doesn't hurt to have someone who can pull the board STRAIGHT from the rear end of the table saw when resawing. It is a pain when the board wants to close up on the table saw's blade,but if you keep your fingers at the top corner of the 6" board,the saw blade can't reach you.

[Russell Johnson]

Thank you all for the advice. I've considered the partial tablesaw approach but I'm worried about kickback.

[David Weaver]

Couple of things you can do -
* use a featherboard, a strong one, to put pressure on the board at the blade bottom
* once you're using the featherboard, concentrate your efforts at keeping downpressure on the board

Then you can decide how high you're comfortable putting the TS blade as you're working. If the TS turns into a howling smokefest, then you can back off of it some. that shouldn't be as much of an issue with poplar as it would be with a hardwood.

I share your distaste for the TS. The guy who got me into WW likes to use the TS with no guards, and one of the first things I did was feed a panel into the TS improperly and receive it right in the gut at a high rate of speed - classic cut turning through the board as the piece kicked back. That was on a 5 hp TS, it was an eye-opening experience.

With a featherboard, I'd have no qualms about cutting this groove, though, and if the wood was straight, I'd have no qualms about doing it without a featherboard.

I don't want to come across like a life insurance agent, but I have an extra older and sharp (older is better) D8 thumbhole rip saw that you could have cheap if you decide you want a rip saw. It wouldn't have all of the compromises that a new saw has.

[Russell Johnson]

David, I may try that with some stock I have on had for a test. Thank you for the advice.