Re-sawing by hand

[Karl]

Ok, so I don't have the space for a bandsaw in my workshop.

So does anybody else have to re-saw timber by hand? Upto now I have been thicknessing timber down to the required thickness - terrible waste. It has become an issue of late because my timber yard doesn't sell Beech in 1" thickness, only 2", and I need some 3/4" stock.

For widths less than 5", I can re-saw on the Triton saw table.

Any pointers etc would be most welcome.

Cheers

Karl

 

[beech1948]

Hi,
I've never done this but you could combine your Triton and a hand saw. One pass of the Triton, turn it over and make the next pass and then hand saw out the middle.

Alan

 

[dedee]

It is possible to do the table saw and hand method, if a bit scary.

I ran the piece over the table saw and took out about 1/2" at a time rather than the whole depth in one go but it still felt a bit scary - TAKE CARE. It would be a good idea to have a very tall very vertical additional fence.

The table sawn kerf acts as a guide to keep the hand saw straight but due to my technique/skill I had quite a lot of cleaning up to do with the planes.

The board below is oak and was about 3/4" thick.

Andy

 

[mr]

Its easy enough to do by hand but you will break into a sweat There are various ways to do it. I start by clamping the board at a 45 degree angle and then sawing with a tenon saw from the corner in so that the kerf splits two edges of the board.

Then flip the board round and do the same to the opposite corner. From there its a case of joining the kerfs and carrying on until you get to a halfway point whereupon you flip the board round in the vice and repeat the process from the other end. Once I have kerfed the corners and to do the bulk of the cutting I have used a sharp rip saw and a framesaw. It takes some time and patience to stay on line but it is possible, As you proceed down the cut so to speak I find it helpful to wedge open the cut behind the blade. Prevents kickback.... :lol:

(Excuse ugly mug).
It sounds daunting but its really not that hard once you get into it as long as you don't mind the workout.


Cheers Mike

 

[mr]

For some reason I couldnt edit the post above to add this

Chris Swingley (?) has some nice pics and words on resawing by hand and how to make a framesaw.
Clicky clicky.

http://www.hyperkitten.com/woodworking/resaw.php3
and
http://www.hyperkitten.com/woodworking/frame_saw.php3

Cheers Mike

 

[woodbloke]

Doing a double pass with the riving knife removed is possible of course but very scary. I have done it in the past and would advise that the saw blade is only raised about 6 or 10mm at a time to make the whole process a bit easier. It's also severely frowned upon in the trade, if not illegal - Rob

 

[Chris Knight]

I'm not sure if Andy had to remove his riving knife. On my Scheppach, I keep it on all the time but a few mm below the top of the blade so I can make grooving cuts etc.

 

[Karl]

Thanks for the replies folks.

Mike - that's an interesting frame saw. I was thinking about buying one of these, but yours looks much more stable for rip cutting (although clearly useless for crosscutting, but my cheap hardpoint will do for that anyway).

Cheers

Karl

 

[George_N]

Thanks for the replies folks.

Mike - that's an interesting frame saw. I was thinking about buying one of these, but yours looks much more stable for rip cutting (although clearly useless for crosscutting, but my cheap hardpoint will do for that anyway).

Cheers

Karl

Karl' I'd call the Rutlands offering a bow saw rather than a frame saw. I've never seen a commercially produced frame saw, probably because most people would opt for a powered bandsaw. When I need to resaw anything more than 4" deep I have to do the double rip on my Triton and handsaw the rest if it is more than 5" or so. I do have a wee bandsaw but the total depth of cut is only 4" (it's an old Burgess BK1).

 

[Pete W]

Karl, if you're interested in a framesaw, here are some more resources that you might find useful:

William Duffield's at WoodCentral

Stephen Andrews' Framesaw page

Chris Swingley's version (the framesaw is about halfway down the page)

 

[mr]

Thanks for the replies folks.

Mike - that's an interesting frame saw. I was thinking about buying one of these, but yours looks much more stable for rip cutting (although clearly useless for crosscutting, but my cheap hardpoint will do for that anyway).

Cheers

Karl

Thats a bow saw rather than a frame saw as George says on the Rutlands site. Good for cross cutting, ripping etc depending on the blade - a replacement for a "normal" saw. THe frame saw is really aimed specifically at resawing and cutting veneers in a slightly different config. I built mine from the Pics shown on Chris Swingleys site. If you were to build one I think the things to bear in mind are the blade tensioning mechanism and how you keep the blade from twisting along its length as you bring the blade up to tension.

Cheers Mike