So this week's project was a rack to hold various spools of wire taking up space all over my garage. It was pretty simple, 4 boards to form an open box, slots cut into the sides to receive dowels which hold the spools, and a french cleat across the back. Inspired by James Pallas' hand tool speed thread, I kept an eye on the clock to see how long this project took. It took 7 hours and 15 minutes total, which I thought was pretty good, especially considering: A) much of the design was done on the fly, by physically placing the spools on the boards and marking from there, and B) I'm not in a hurry when woodworking, I do it for relaxation.
In my post-game analysis, I identified two areas that I felt were unnecessarily slow; planing end-grain, and making rip cuts.
About my saws: When I started this hobby, I knew that I couldn't cut in a straight line if my life depended on it, so I wasn't about to run out and waste money on nice saws. Instead I bought a Stanley Sharp Tooth 20 inch saw for dimensioning, and a little Marples Japanese-style saw for joinery. One day something clicked and I could suddenly saw straight and square. I felt finally that the Marples saw was holding me back, not my ability, and treated myself to a Veritas dovetail saw. My joinery improved immensely with the Veritas saw.
On to the Stanley... It is a crosscut pattern, and I can crosscut through an 8-inch wide 4/4 Poplar board in about 30 seconds. Again, I'm in no hurry, so for another point of reference, the saw moves through about 1/2 (or a bit more) of material with each push stroke. However, when ripping, I'm lucky to get 1/4 inch per stroke. I estimate I spent an hour or more making the 5 rip cuts that this project required; If I could rip at the same rate that I crosscut, that time would have been reduced to 15 minutes or less. I've decided its time for a dedicated rip saw.
Sorry for the ramble, now for the questions!
Can I expect the same sort of performance from a similarly toothed rip saw? In other words, the Stanley is 8 tpi, will an 8 tpi rip saw move through 1/2 or so per stroke? Or is ripping just a slower method of sawing, and I need a coarser toothed saw to move at the same speed?
Rather than buy another new saw, I have several old warranted superior saws given to me by my father-in-law. All are in need of a good clean-up and sharpening. My plan is to learn how to sharpen using these saws (I'll have to learn eventually anyway,) and give myself a rip saw in the process. I've read several threads about saw sharpening, and watched a few Youtube videos... but I'm still a bit confused about rake angles, fleam, etc... Are there any idiot-proof tutorials out there? Or, dare I ask, any good advice for a novice sharpener?
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Originally Posted by Jim Koepke
