Kerf Saw for Guiding Re-Sawing

[Phillip J Allen]

Hi all,

I am getting ready to re-saw some 10 inch oak boards for my mission style wardrobe. I need to re-saw a 1 inch board down to 3/8 for the panels. Not going to be a fun job even with my 5ppi rip saw.

When I resawed boards for the sides of the wardrobe carcase I ripped a guide kerf on all the boards first using my table saw. But that was quite a wide kerf and thus I only got one usable 3/8 board after ripping since I lost so much material. Since my bandsaw cannot rip a 10 inch board I am still resawing by hand and I still would like a guide-kerf. But the question is how to cut a really narrow one easily. At first I tried shaping a hex-key to a really narrow cutter for my router-plane but that seemed like more work than it saved after I tried it. Then I decided to take my stair saw blade & make a sort of fenced plane for it.

So thus was born my Kerf-saw.....or kerf-saw-plane! Or what ever you want to call it.

So what doo you you all think? Do you think I made something useful? Or should I just learn to saw better? ;)

regards,
Phil

[Jim Matthews]

That's clever.

Consider this idea stolen *ahem* borrowed.
I like the moving fillister adapted to set your depth.

If you could advance the saw a little deeper, with each pass you would really have something.

[jamie shard]

I vote "clever" too!

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Tom Fidgen had talked about something like this:

http://www.theunpluggedwoodshop.com/bent-laminations-and-the-path-of-least-resistance.html

And here, referencing a tool catalog Joel Moskowitz posted:

http://www.theunpluggedwoodshop.com/everything-old-is-new-again.html

Regardless, sounds like a handy tool. I've used a tool from Stew Mac for cleaning fret slots (http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_supplies/Saws_and_slots/Fret_Slot_Cleaning_Tool.html) following my knife lines, or a scraper with a hook turned on the narrow edge to make a starting line for my saw for "precision" cuts, but I think your method would work better.

Let us know more about how it works!

[William Adams]

Very cool --- I've considered something along those lines to cut boxes apart.

[Ryan Baker]

Looks good to me! + another clever.

How deep of a kerf are you cutting with it?

[Jim Koepke]

Count me as another one to "borrow" the idea of your moving fillester saw.

Thanks for sharing.

jtk

[Zach Dillinger]

There was a plane patented with exactly this idea in the late 19th century. It was intended to cut tenon shoulders, but could be used in exactly this same manner. The name escapes me, but it seems that Donnelly just sold one at his Indy auction. A cool idea, but its been done.

[Michael Ray Smith]

That's clever.

Consider this idea stolen *ahem* borrowed.



+1

Phillip, Did you consider putting a fence on the stair saw itself?

[Jim Koepke]

A cool idea, but its been done.

A lot of excitement in our woodworking endeavors is derived from rediscovery. Hand tool woodworkers developed ways of doing many tasks before the "age of machines." When machines took over, many of the "old ways" were lost. Now that some of us want to return to a quieter way of working in our craft/art it is only natural that the same problems arise with the same or similar solutions to follow.

Another recent rediscovery is on the finer points of setting a chip breaker. There was even a link to a magazine article back to the 1890s on how to set a chip breaker. What makes the big difference now is the ability to make a video of the process while producing measurements of repeatable results. What used to be measured as "just a glint," can now be expressed as 0.004".

For me it was the slot cut in the fence of about 1 or 2% of the Stanley 45s listed on ebay. It always nagged me about why that was done. Then it hit me. It isn't my idea, it is a rediscovery, but it is still exciting and useful.

jkt

[Zach Dillinger]

Of course Jim. I certainly meant no disrespect to the OP. Things like this are constantly being rediscovered because of the current hand tool push. And that's a good thing.

[Phillip J Allen]

Thanks for the positive feed back! Stolen, borrowed, rediscoverd....ahhh. As long as it works & makes my life easier! I am sure in all the hundreds of years of hand-woodworking someone has build just about everything at one time or another!

Currently I can drop the blade down so it can cut 1 inch deep (as seen in these pictures). But if I cut out & file another wider/deeper stair saw blade (as I did the one currently being used) I can make it go as deep as I want it to.

I thought about putting a fence on my stair saw itself but I wasn't really sure how to do it so it wouldn't interfer with saw-slot. My stair saw was made from some 4/4 ash scrap I had siting around. I could have glued the fence-base onto the side but then it would not have allowed me to use it to cut sliding dovetails (which is why I made it in the first place).
252876252877

[Mark AJ Allen]

If you resaw by hand, you NEED this.

[Federico Mena Quintero]

Excellent idea! Totally worth stealing :)