Best type of saw for ripping long boards

[tibi]

Hello,

I would like to ask you if it is feasible to rip 2m long oak boards (32 or 50 mm thick) with 300 mm Ryoba Japanese saw? This is the kind of material I will be commonly working with and I would like to predominantly use Japanese saws. 2 m is the maximum length I may work with. Usually, boards will be shorter.

Or should I buy a dedicated western rip waw with blade length 660 mm and 4,5 TPI? I would like to rip by hand, but I cannot estimate how long will it take to rip one meter of 30 or 50 mm thick board of hardwood with the biggest ryoba or this ripping saw of the western type.

I am not concerned very much about the precision, because I will plane the wood or use the shooting board afterwards.

thank you.

 

[custard]

The workshop where I trained didn't get electricity until the 1960's, and for the first six months of our training we had to follow their example and do absolutely everything with hand tools, and we worked almost exclusively with Oak.

At first you think your arms are going to drop off, but it's surprising how quickly you get used to it. Ripping several metres of thick Oak board is perfectly do-able, with the right saw it's just a few minutes work.

Personally I wouldn't consider Japanese saws for a job like this, what you need is a big Western rip saw with 4 or 4 1/2 tpi and the skills to keep it sharp. Seriously, we gave our rip saws a quick honing nearly every day, not a full sharpen, but enough to keep them really sharp.

Good luck!

 

[tibi]

The workshop where I trained didn't get electricity until the 1960's, and for the first six months of our training we had to follow their example and do absolutely everything with hand tools, and we worked almost exclusively with Oak.

At first you think your arms are going to drop off, but it's surprising how quickly you get used to it. Ripping several metres of thick Oak board is perfectly do-able, with the right saw it's just a few minutes work.

Personally I wouldn't consider Japanese saws for a job like this, what you need is a big Western rip saw with 4 or 4 1/2 tpi and the skills to keep it sharp. Seriously, we gave our rip saws a quick honing nearly every day, not a full sharpen, but enough to keep them really sharp.

Good luck!

Thank you very much for your answer. I have thought that the Japanese saw is too short so I would need more strokes with the same TPI, so a big rip saw would be better. I also have a circular saw as the last resort, but I do not like the mess it creates and all the noise. For my personal projects, I will have all the time I need to finish them. I just need to learn how to sharpen a saw properly, as I have never done this before.

 

[Fitzroy]

I use both Japanese and western saws, I asked a similar question a few years back see the thread below if interested. My experience is a western saw with 4tpi (ish) is the way to go. For an inexperienced person with a home sharpened western saw it was taking about 10mins for a 2.4m 5cm thick sycamore board

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/threads/hand-rip-sawing.105358/
Fitz.

 

[tibi]

I use both Japanese and western saws, I asked a similar question a few years back see the thread below if interested. My experience is a western saw with 4tpi (ish) is the way to go. For an inexperienced person with a home sharpened western saw it was taking about 10mins for a 2.4m 5cm thick sycamore board

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/threads/hand-rip-sawing.105358/
Fitz.

Thank you very much, I will read your thread and find more information.