Ideal TPI for a rip saw for resawing

[Blevins]

I've got a 4 1/2 TPI 26" rip saw but it's slow on resawing lengths of hardwood.

I know some people talk about Roubo-style frame saws, but before I go down that road I'd like to continue to experiment with a standard hand saw on wood between 2 and 10" wide.

The plan is to buy a cheap but vintage ebay hand saw and retooth it with an optimum set-up for resawing hardwood.

I thought I might try 2 1/2 TPI, with 0 degrees rake, and teeth with deep gullets to clear the dust, maybe 1/2"?
Is a longer blade, say 26/28", too long, given the stresses that resawing a board puts on the saw?

 

[AndyT]

I've played about deep ripping by hand a bit.

This post was about some alder

deep-ripping-by-hand-t100654.html

and this one included some unidentified yellow wood and some cedar.

chest-of-drawers-wip-slow-hand-tool-project-t87014.html

In both cases I got best results with a 26" 3 1/2 tpi saw, but on wood only about 7-8" wide.
The limiting factor is how much sawdust is produced, filling up the gullets, before the front end of the saw emerges from the wood and the sawdust clears.
I also found that workholding and position made a big difference. A 28" saw would have been nice to try - if the wood is vertical and you can lean in and out of the cut, the length of your arm is not going to limit the length of stroke.

Don't forget to show us how you get on!

 

[Blevins]

Thanks Andy, I've got my eye on Fleabay as we speak!

 

[bugbear]

The limiting factor is how much sawdust is produced, filling up the gullets, before the front end of the saw emerges from the wood and the sawdust clears.

Absolutely.

The answer to the question "why do saws with big teeth cut quicker" is nowhere near as obvious as your intuition says it should be!

(and so on, for coarse files and sandpaper)

BugBear

 

[undergroundhunter]

I have a 30"tpi rip saw and have sawn 9" of sapele with not too much effort. The problem is because the saw is so long you have to have really long arms to make full use of the saw and sawing on stools can be problematic as the noose of the saw gets rather close to the ground. If you want to come over and give it a try you are more than welcome I'm not far from Doncaster, just drop me a pm.

Matt

 

[D_W]

I've got rip saws from 10 teeth to 2 1/2 per inch. If you're going to resaw wider widths of wood, the key is keeping the tooth count down so that you can get reasonable cutting action by each tooth instead of them just skidding across the wood.

I've built a 4 foot frame saw, also, same teeth per inch. It's a bit cumbersome and heavy, but it works easier if you have to do more than a little bit of resawing.

It took a while to find the coarse tooth regular hand saw, but it's much better than a 4 1/2 tpi saw for resawing - at least twice as fast.

 

[bugbear]

I have a 30"tpi rip saw and have sawn 9" of sapele with not too much effort. The problem is because the saw is so long you have to have really long arms to make full use of the saw and sawing on stools can be problematic as the noose of the saw gets rather close to the ground. If you want to come over and give it a try you are more than welcome I'm not far from Doncaster, just drop me a pm.

Matt

What are the teeth on your saw please? (pitch, shape, rake, etc)

BugBear

 

[Blevins]

Finally, after time acquiring saws and a summer hardly venturing into the workshop, I'm in a position to report.

I've just finished filing and testing a 28" anonymous used rip saw I bought on ebay. I filed the old 3 1/2" tpi teeth right down, and retoothed it at 2 1/4 inch, with 10 degree rake. More than a day's work and a screaming right arm, using a Bahco regular saw file that I'd ordered as my other files (and all the others I saw online) were too small.

But it cuts well and the saw dust flies out. Tonight I resawed a 1.2m length of 9 3/4" wide cherry, 2" thick. I went at it like mad and it took me 70mins with the occasional breather and a lot of readjusting in the vice.

It felt quicker than resawing with a 30" rip that I also bought which has 3 1/2 inch tpi.

At some point I'd like to try retoothing a saw with 1 1/2" monster teeth, just to try it out as dust clearance seems to be critical. Maybe reduce the rake as well.