Shooting Boards Do I really Need Them?

[Mark R Webster]

I have done woodworking most of my life and feel like my work is pretty accurate. I have made several shooting boards and still have some, but never really found that I used them. I have an industrial quality table saw and sleds to help with accuracy and I use a high quality 60 tooth carbide saw blade most of the time. I appreciate the ability that the shooting board has to get clean end grain surfaces and to tweak a surface in very small increments i.e. with miters. The thing is, with the 60t blade, careful adjustments, accurate sleds and quality table saw, I seem to get by without using the shooting boards. What am I missing?
I don't want to ruffle any feathers, I imagine some are passionate about needing a shooting board. I am just trying to understand what I may be missing.

[Andrew Gibson]

I have two shooting boards that I would not live without. One for 90* cuts and one for 45* miters. I can and do work without them but for furniture and instrument work they are superior to machines, at least for me. The first time I built and used a shooting board it was like having a blindfold yanked off. It improved the quality of my work a great deal.

[Joe A Faulkner]

Hmm ... why do you ask? Seems like an odd question to post in the hand tool forum. If you were doing your cross cuts with handsaws, my guess is that you would use a shooting board more regularly. Given that you are cross cutting on the table saw and getting results that you are happy with, then its hard to argue that you are missing anything.

[Jason Martin Winnipeg]

Hmm ... why do you ask? Seems like an odd question to post in the hand tool forum. If you were doing your cross cuts with handsaws, my guess is that you would use a shooting board more regularly. Given that you are cross cutting on the table saw and getting results that you are happy with, then its hard to argue that you are missing anything.

Pretty much this. Shooting boards are handy for when you use a hand saw and saw off the line. But if you've been doing it long enough, I daresay you can saw to the line with only a minor touch up from the plane needed afterwards to which a shooting board may not be required.

[Mark R Webster]

I ask because my impression is that others who use hand tools and power tools (as I do) seem to use and like shooting boards. Jim's response make sense to me thanks Jim.

[glenn bradley]

I ask because my impression is that others who use hand tools and power tools (as I do) seem to use and like shooting boards. Jim's response make sense to me thanks Jim.

I'm a hybrid guy and I like shooting boards for fitting some parts. You don't have to have one but, I use them enough to have a couple and dedicated planes. We all do things differently so not having one, or having one, doesn't make you better, or worse off, than the other guy.

[John C Cox]

I ask because my impression is that others who use hand tools and power tools (as I do) seem to use and like shooting boards. Jim's response make sense to me thanks Jim.

When I need clean "show face" glue joints or I have mission critical glue joints - I plane the joints by hand to clean them up and candle them to verify a good tight fit for gluing... I may use a power saw to cut off the waste or rip them close to size - but my glue joint prep is usually done with hand tools.

I started doing this with guitar work - where you can't have any gaps in the glue joints and there's no extra thickness to "make up for oops". Since I was already doing it and sorted out my process - I have continued to joint up panels this way for furniture duty work where it matters.....

I was all hot for a power jointer till I started candling power jointed joints.... Yikes!!! Gaps everywhere! You need a SUPER precise setup on a power jointer to have any chance of a joint candling properly..... And even then it's not always good enough (for what I am used to) to glue up straight off the jointer....

[David Eisenhauer]

Not familiar with the term "candling joints". What is that please?

[Simon MacGowen]

I was all hot for a power jointer till I started candling power jointed joints.... Yikes!!! Gaps everywhere! You need a SUPER precise setup on a power jointer to have any chance of a joint candling properly..... And even then it's not always good enough (for what I am used to) to glue up straight off the jointer....

Setting up a jointer to cut perfectly is a frustrating act, and it applies to 99% of jointer users I know, no matter what caliper gadgets you use. Simply said, a lot of these jointers are made with budgets in mind and the tolerance factors are limiting their precision performance. To try to remedy the built-in deficiencies with tune-ups is futile.

Simon

[Brian Holcombe]

I think that most users probably pass the material over the jointer too quickly. Compare to the speed of a planer pulling material into the cutter and match that. If you do it in warp speed then it's going to cut but have many more ripples and lack precision.

I went over my jointer with checking tools, but I did not need to do much. I can cut 16" wide material that is so flat it sticks together to create a vacuum seal when I stack up the boards. I don't think mine is unique by any means as it is a middle of the road machine by comparison to Martin or Hofmann or even the higher end SCMI.

This is a joint on a short (18") board, which is difficult compared to a longer board of say 48".



No glue, the boards are just sitting on one another.

[Simon MacGowen]

Except for smaller projects, most of my boards are spring joined these days, whether the initial edging is done on the tablesaw with a rip blade or by hand. But no spring joints if splines are used.

Simon

[Jim Koepke]

Another approach for shooting in a vise is to work from one side and only go in half way. Then turn the piece to work from the other end.

Something seen many years ago described a method of squaring the end of a piece with a chisel. It was called 'blocking in.' The author thought this might be the origin of the name for a block plane.

jtk

[Kees Heiden]

What interests me is WHY didn't shootinghboards have the same prominence in pre industrial handtool woodworking as they seem to have today. They are not mentioned in Roubo, while every current hands-on manual on woodworking describes them.

I think there are several reasons.
- Like Warren describes, it is actually easier to plane the endgrain of a board when it is in the vise. You just have to keep your plane level, something every workman would have been familiar with. They didn't have trouble doing it on long grain! Even I can get decent results this way.
- Endgrain is abusive for a sharp edge. So, endgrain planing would have been avoided as much as possible. The first and last tool the endgrain saw was a saw. Again, no problem for a full time joiner or cabinet maker. They could saw to a line, and keep the cut perpendicular.
- I see many describe how the shootingboard allows the utmost precision in creating an exact length of wood. But to be honest, how often do you really need such exactness? If you can saw accurately to a line?
- Visible endgrain was avoided. Everything covered in veneers and mouldings. So a little roughness was no problem.
- Joints were a means to an end. They were made to construct a piece, but the joints had no esthetic value. They were buried as much as possible and when visible you shouldn't be shocked to find bit of gappy baseline for example. Today the joints need to perfect and often are part of the estetic appeal.

These things automatically lead to less importance for shooting boards, while they are still very usefull for exact miters and for very thin stuff.

[Simon MacGowen]

These things automatically lead to less importance for shooting boards, while they are still very usefull for exact miters and for very thin stuff.

In a thread about a book on hand tools that has now been "moved" -- not "deleted" or "removed", just moved (to where?) -- some pointed out context was important. In your case, it is audience.

Less importance to whom? To those who don't use shooting boards a lot? Or those who don't realize their full potentials?

I was once given a trial pass to Rob Cosman's online videos, and for the first time came to know he used a shooting board for almost every hand tool project he presented (the ones I browsed). Does he have the planing skills or sawing skills to true or square up his stock? The answer is obvious to anyone who knows about his work. Can't remember if he had a DVD on making a shooting board...Paul Sellers has done a video or two, for sure.

There are a few who make and sell shooting boards, and there are classes on making shooting boards. To these people, more not less the shooting boards are getting important.

You point out two good uses of a shooting board: miters and thin stock. Anyone who masters a shooting board can point out a lot more...including where a shooting board is so good at that freehand skills can't match.

Simon

[Frederick Skelly]

If you were doing your cross cuts with handsaws, my guess is that you would use a shooting board more regularly. Given that you are cross cutting on the table saw and getting results that you are happy with, then its hard to argue that you are missing anything.

+1. I agree.