Preparing Stock By Hand - Sequence?

[Erich Weidner]

When preparing stock for a project by hand, what is the most labor efficient sequence?

Now, it may seem like a dumb question, but when using hand tools to rip and crosscut, say I have a board much wider than I need for most parts. Say a 12" wide x 8' long board that I'm going to get some 10" wide boards and some 4" wide boards out of for a cut list.

Do I cross cut first, then rip, then joint and thickness plane?
If I were using power tools, and the whole board would fit in a thickness planer, I'm guessing most people would just joint/plane the whole board first, like what I see in the stacks of S4S stock at the lumberyard.

Granted I don't know any better, but this doesn't feel like a time/labor efficient way to tackle it with purely hand tools. I'm guessing I'd first want to break that big board down into more manageable pieces. But if I've not yet created reference edge/face I can't really saw to final width...

Thoughts?

[Ben Ellenberger]

I’m interested in seeing people’s responses too. I tend to rough cut pieces to size before planing or gluing up wide pieces. If I’m trying to save a long piece for something else, I may rip first, then only crosscut the pieces for the immediate project. Usually I crosscut first so I don’t have to rip more than I need to. I always leave them a little bit wide/long at this stage.

i usually let pieces sit for a day after rough cutting them before I flatten my reference face and edge. then I’ll get them thicknessed and down to their final width. Ideally they will be close enough to final width that I can get there pretty quickly with a jack plane set coarse. If I’m gluing up a wide panel I usually make sure each piece isn’t too twisted/cupped, then I joint and glue them up, then I flatten the whole panel as one. I don’t try to get them perfect before jointing/gluing. I get one end square to my reference edge, then the final step is cutting to final length.

[David Eisenhauer]

As I see it, cross cut sawing is the easiest, so I would cut down the lengths that I had to rip (unless the entire board needs to be the same width). After cutting my piece(s) to rough length(s), I would definitely rip down close to final width so as to limit as best possible the amount of thickness planning required. After I had my pieces rough cut to length and width, I would then start establishing the reference faces with my hand plane. Even if I had (say) four stretchers (x length) of the same dimension to take out of a larger piece of timber, I would cut down to four individual pieces before starting to hand plane. That's me, others may prefer to hand plane a long piece already rough cut to 4x length and rough width. It seems that I can deal with wind, etc more effectively in shorter pieces than I can on a long piece. Same for making longer rip cuts to width - it is easier for me to handle (say) a 2' long board than an 8' long board simply due to the mechanics of handling the length/weight/holding securely for the cut. I don't try to dodge or limit hand sawing, as I grew up doing lots of it and don't mind it. While I don't mind hand planning, I am much more cognizant of the amount of effort/time/sharpening/potential issues that I associate with hand planning.

[Doug Dawson]

When preparing stock for a project by hand, what is the most labor efficient sequence?

Now, it may seem like a dumb question, but when using hand tools to rip and crosscut, say I have a board much wider than I need for most parts. Say a 12" wide x 8' long board that I'm going to get some 10" wide boards and some 4" wide boards out of for a cut list.

Do I cross cut first, then rip, then joint and thickness plane?
If I were using power tools, and the whole board would fit in a thickness planer, I'm guessing most people would just joint/plane the whole board first, like what I see in the stacks of S4S stock at the lumberyard.

Granted I don't know any better, but this doesn't feel like a time/labor efficient way to tackle it with purely hand tools. I'm guessing I'd first want to break that big board down into more manageable pieces. But if I've not yet created reference edge/face I can't really saw to final width...

Thoughts?

Definitely cut pieces to rough size before doing any planing on them, it saves a ton of work. BTW, I do most of my rough ripping on the band saw, but I do almost all of my rough cross-cutting by hand. (I _could_ do the rough ripping by hand, but have done enough of it that I don’t have anything to prove, and I’m getting old. :^)

Whether your rip or crosscut first, depends on whatever is most convenient.

FWIW, when planing, exact dimensions don’t matter as much as many people think they do.

[Blake M Williams]

Planing after sawing off excess saves you a lot of work. And like Doug said, having everything to exact thicknesses isnt all that necessary.

[Andrew Seemann]

The snarky answer is:
1. Start cutting and planing.
2. Realize how much work it is and how much time and physical effort it takes.
3. Give up and use your power tools

The answer to your actual question is what David, Doug, and Blake said, making the pieces as close to final dimension as practical and then planing. I'd only add that there is nothing heroic about dimensioning all your wood by hand. If you want to do it, go for it, but don't feel you "have" to do it for any reason. Many/most hand tool enthusiasts will use some power tools. Many of us just don't have the time (or in the case of those of us getting up in years, the physical stamina) to do everything by hand.

[Jim Koepke]

Mine is done by hand because the only stationary power tools in my shop are a bandsaw, drill press and lathe.

Also it is good exercise to build up or help to keep one's stamina.

As to the original question, it is often easier to cut to size before finishing the surfaces. One exception is if the work needs ripping and has rough edges you may want to plane one edge before feeding it through the bandsaw.

Some rough wood may also be best to clean up a face a little to find the bad spots to dodge.

For some projects it might be best to plane a single piece before sawing it up into smaller pieces to make a box. This would take care of matching thickness for ease of joinery.

It really depends on the size of the lumber and the project for which it is being used.

jtk

[Jim Matthews]

Not mentioned above is that smaller size boards reduce waste lost to twist, warp and cupping.

*****

I'm currently building an entryway cubby.
The challenge is finding boards longer than 48" without serious defects.

I suspect that the sequence boils down to sawing to size, planing to dimension, sawing joints, planing for finish, assembly, plane for best fit.

It's *all* easier with straight grain, air dried lumber.

[Warren Mickley]

In general, we cut all pieces to rough size before any planing. An inch longer than needed and 1/4 wider than needed would be typical. These numbers could be smaller if it enabled you to get an additional piece out of the board.

Flattening the face of an eight foot board takes away an inordinate amount of stock. A 1x12x96 board with a flat face may have less than 3/4 left while a flat 1x10x20 board from the same stock may have 15/16 left after flattening.

We first flatten a face side, then make an edge flat and square to the face. The sequence after this depends on specific usage, but for example if we are going to plane the end grain we do this before cutting to width.

Edit: I got interrupted while posting and did not read Jim's post, which makes similar points.

[James Pallas]

Lots of good advice here. I’ve seen a lot of good wood turned into chips for no reason. It pays to make an initial evaluation of each board. I seen so many just say “flatten one face”. Warren touched on it a little. If you know what you need and can save both work and money by cutting from one or the other end of a board to eliminate now or crook do it. It is a little harder to work vertical grain but you can still save. Machine has taught to just work thinking in straight lines. If the piece you need is there but at an angle to the edge it’s still there.

[Jim Koepke]

I seen so many just say “flatten one face”.

Recently in reading an old FWW Magazine there was an article on timber framing. The article suggested only flattening where the joints were going to be.

jtk

[James Pallas]

The issue with starting out by flattening one face on a longer board can cause the lose of much material. If you do that you can easily take 1/4” or more thickness on say an 8’ board. If the case is, which is often in my experience, that most of the bow is in two or three feet of one end you wasted a lot of good wood. The same goes for crook. I recently surfaced an 8/4 8’ hard maple board. If I hadn’t cut off about 2 ft I would have lost the thickness I need for 6’ of material and would have had some work taking 3/8” of hard maple to the trash. What I’m saying is evaluate the material well before you put a tool to it. Sequence should start like this, evaluate, break down as needed, flatten one face, then the rest. If a hand tool worker this can save hours of prep time and dollars in materials.

[Ben Ellenberger]

I did that for my saw bench. Only the first few inches of the inside of the legs needed to be square. Getting them prepped took almost no time at all.

[Jim Koepke]

What I’m saying is evaluate the material well before you put a tool to it. Sequence should start like this, evaluate, break down as needed, flatten one face, then the rest. If a hand tool worker this can save hours of prep time and dollars in materials.

Yes, start with the evaluation of materials and the project. Sometimes it will make the work easier to break down the material first. Especially if there are some knots or other unwanted features in the wood. Sometimes it may be easier to work one piece before breaking it down.

jtk

[Doug Dawson]

The issue with starting out by flattening one face on a longer board can cause the lose of much material. If you do that you can easily take 1/4” or more thickness on say an 8’ board. If the case is, which is often in my experience, that most of the bow is in two or three feet of one end you wasted a lot of good wood. The same goes for crook. I recently surfaced an 8/4 8’ hard maple board. If I hadn’t cut off about 2 ft I would have lost the thickness I need for 6’ of material and would have had some work taking 3/8” of hard maple to the trash. What I’m saying is evaluate the material well before you put a tool to it. Sequence should start like this, evaluate, break down as needed, flatten one face, then the rest. If a hand tool worker this can save hours of prep time and dollars in materials.

Agreed. Another time-saving tip is to always take down the most convex part of the _middle_ of a board _first_, by whatever means you have at your disposal. A scrub plane is great for this. It’s one of the things you learn really quickly when using a powered jointer. :^) It applies to hand planing as well. The rest of the board will see what you did there, and fall more easily into submission.