kick back

[jeff oldham]

im actaully ashamed to say this,,but i was trying to square up a 8 in block of wood about 2 in thick and on the second cut i got some kickback,,,lol,,firt time i ever got it and it was scary,,and it was on my new saw stop,,lol,,i did learn a good lesson i should have had the guard on it and and actually i should have done it on my miter saw,,lol

[Jacques Gagnon]

….glad to know you did not get hurt. Out of curiosity, was the riving knife installed?

[jeff oldham]

no it wasnt and i was watching a you tube video,,steve ramsey at wwmm and he said a riving should be on the saw,,it does help,,

[Lee Schierer]

I'm glad you weren't injured. What blade were you using when the kick back occurred and which side of the square (long grain or cross grain) was being cut at the time. I would guess that you were making a rip cut with a combination or cross cut blade.

[Bill Space]

I'm glad you weren't injured. What blade were you using when the kick back occurred and which side of the square (long grain or cross grain) was being cut at the time. I would guess that you were making a rip cut with a combination or cross cut blade.


OK, but why would one not use the riving knife? Seems like a no brainier to me to use the riving knife regardless of what I am doing...all other things being equal.

[Patrick Varley]

no it wasnt and i was watching a you tube video,,steve ramsey at wwmm and he said a riving should be on the saw,,it does help,,

Glad you are ok. Definitely would say the riving knife can be your friend. Honestly I don't remember the last cut I did where it wouldn't have been possible with the riving knife in place. But the SawStop does make it easy to get in on and off if you need to. Admittedly, I switched to a SharkGuard as the guard mounts to the riving knife and simplifies that process.

[Frank Pratt]

I'm a guy who never even used a guard or riving knife before getting a PCS. But it's so easy to use both & to switch them out that there's no excuse not to, excepting a few specific situations. Glad you're okay though.

[Thomas McCurnin]

Short pieces are easy to kickback without using hold downs, push sticks, or a pair of push sticks, one to hold down, one to push.

[Ron Citerone]

Glad you are OK!

[Kris Cook]

I'm a guy who never even used a guard or riving knife before getting a PCS. But it's so easy to use both & to switch them out that there's no excuse not to, excepting a few specific situations. Glad you're okay though.

Me too also. No reason not to use them.

[Frederick Skelly]

Short pieces are easy to kickback without using hold downs, push sticks, or a pair of push sticks, one to hold down, one to push.

+1. I've made that mistake. Garage door still has the dent to remind me.

Very glad you are OK.

[George Yetka]

Ive only had 2 and they are scary. One was an offcut Im not sure how it happened it was kind of a blur. The other was on a Pm66 with no knife.
Definitely keep the knife on if the guard is not on.

[Darrell Bade]

After owning saws without & with riving knifes I would never own one without again and leave it on all the time. Granted it ain't a do all savior I have never put any additional dents in my toolbox in the 13 years I've had the knife. Can think of 3 times some crazy internal stresses in some oak closed the kerf to the point of slowing the blade down a bunch and I stopped the saw and the wood hit the scrap pile, I feel without the knife they would have launched for the toolbox to stop.

[Prashun Patel]

Reading your description again, "I should have done it on my miter saw" makes be think you were doing a cross cut without the miter fence, but instead with the rip fence. That's a serious no-no - even with the guard. It's just difficult for mere mortals to guide a cross cut squarely through the cut using the rip fence. Even with a guard or riving knife, you may still twist and get a trapped/kicked piece. Do all cross cuts using a miter fence and with the rip fence out of the way.

Kickback is something we all have dealt with. To new saw users, the physics of kickback, the circumstances under which it occurs, and the magnitude of the force generated are not intuitive.

Sadly it's something we kind of have to experience to appreciate.

Glad you were not hurt.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Ok, on my soap box I try to not ever not have the guard or riving knife installed. I can't recall ever not having it installed..... Glad you're safe!
Look into Grrippers if you do a lot of small cuts. I do boxes and that means a lot of small short cuts. I know the Grippers saved my fingers at least 3 times. Once from a very scary raised panel router bit kick back. I cut the Grippers 2 times.
As mentioned, cutting wood on your fence that is wider than long is always dicey. You can use your miter bar, put a 1" (or so) spacer against the fence away from the blade and set the fence an inch away, register the piece, then do your cut. The piece will not get trapped between the blade and fence.

[andrew whicker]

I think the other thing to keep in mind is that if it all possible, just quit trying to get more wood out of a piece of lumber shorter than 6 to 8 inches... you can't even do any planing or jointing on a board less than 12 inches. I mean you can do whatever you want, but if it is going to be a dangerous cut merely because you are trying to save money by having less scrap.. I think it's time to re-think your plan. Cost of finger / bad bruise in your stomach > cost of new board.

[Bernie Kopfer]

The Sawstop riving knife is designed to be centered in the blade kerf. I took some green tape and adhered it to the left side of the riving knife where its clamped so that the right side of the knife lines up with the right side of the blade teeth. This has the benefit of using the knife as splitter so that it keeps the workpiece against the fence. Perhaps someMinimal benefit in terms of kickback too. But I know that the wood will have a harder time reaching the blade teeth if It try’s to close up the kerf.

[Thomas Wilson]

I would suggest that the safest way to do this cut would have been with a sled equipped with track and clamps to hold the workpiece. A plexiglass guard over the blade is also good for deflecting small off cuts.

If you use a stop block on a miter saw, the piece against the stop should be clamped too. Keep the saw down after the cut until the blade stops spinning to prevent catching the off-cut and flinging it. Usually the piece goes backward, but it can ricochet off the fence toward the operator.

[Larry Frank]

Very interesting that someone would try not to have a guard or riving knife installed. I seriously do not understand not having the riving knife installed.

[Eric Cothern]

I had a 4x4x.75 inch piece of walnut go flying at me and left a nasty bruise across on my belly. Thank goodness for the spare tire. I now stand well clear of the side between the blade and fence.

[Michael Rutman]

There are some times you don’t use a riving knife nor guard, but they wouldn’t apply here.

Dado blades.
Thin kerf saw blades where you forgot to buy a thin kerf riving knife.
You want to demonstrate kick back to teach someone what not to do.

That’s about all I can think of.

[Zachary Hoyt]

I much prefer using a bandsaw to cut smallish pieces of wood. It feels safer, though even the bandsaw can kick back in certain conditions.

[Frank Pratt]

I much prefer using a bandsaw to cut smallish pieces of wood. It feels safer, though even the bandsaw can kick back in certain conditions.

I've seen some spectacular videos of a bandsaw grabbing & rotating a piece. All hell breaks loose.

[Dave Bunge]

I agree with previous posters that it's very important to use a riving knife.

I bought a Sawstop PCS recently and it took me a while to realize that it came with 2 riving knives. One that's part of the blade guard mechanism and easy to see. But also a second, stand alone one that's meant for use when the blade guard is removed. The 2nd one is stored in the same holder that's used for the miter gauge. I probably put it there when I was assembling the saw. But I forgot about it and was in a quandary when I wanted to make cuts without the blade guard. It took me a while and some internet sleuthing to discover that I had what I needed all along.

So I'm just passing this along in case the reason you weren't using a riving knife was that you didn't realize you had one to use when the blade guard is removed.