How many of you use a hand saw as your main way of ripping?

[woodbloke66]

I've got a big Disston rip saw which I very occasionally use. Most of the time it's a bandsaw and for rough cutting big planks into boards which mostly entails ripping off the sap, I use a hand held circular saw. IMO small hobby table saws just don't cut the mustard and take up too much space in small workshop - Rob

 

[scooby]

Found this thread very interesting, thanks.

I recently had to rip 2" thick oak with a 'semi dull' blue handled sandvik throw away. Took quite a while and was certainly a workout but I really enjoyed it :twisted: I found it akin to my other favourite past time of cycling up the biggest/steapest hills in my area.

At work, all ripping is done with a handheld circular or on a jobsite table saw so it was actually nice to get away from the dust and noise. At home, my tiny workshop is pretty full with a bench, pillar drill, thicknesser and vac so the jobsite table saw isnt going in there anytime soon. I'll be buying a proper 4-5tpi rip hand saw. I learned sharpening on 14tpi so 4 or 5 tpi should be easy enough even with my poor eyesight.

 

[LFS19]

I do it and I enjoy the exercise. Time isn't really an issue for me. I spend far longer thinking, umming and ahhing, figuring things out, etc, than I do actually taking tool to wood. So in reality, I don't lose any significant time by hand ripping rather than using a bandsaw.

That's a fair point actually. Thanks!

 

[LFS19]

I got a lot of good advice on this thread:

saw-sharpening-deep-ripping-technique-t107524.html

Note my epiphany about rake angle on page 3!

Thanks for the link, looks like an interesting thread.

 

[LFS19]

Thought I'd get the old thing out and have a go (rip saw that is)

Board over 2 saw horses, knee as hold down:

Move board/saw horse to avoid cutting it in two. You could sit astride and do a two handed hold with the saw vertical - to relieve the monotony and the back ache

Doing OK with bit of 3" pitch pine

4 t.p.i. close up

Very easy and very adaptable with 2 saw horses. Quick and straight cut if set is open enough and wood not moving about. I've done it often this way (when I've had to) with occasional changes of position. Always well supported, wide or narrow, long or short, with direct arm movement / efficient saw stroke.
Splitting a board the other way and you have to use the vice as per the vids above.

Thanks a lot for the demonstration, Jacob.

I'm going to have to get myself a couple of saw horses as I don't actually own any!

 

[D_W]

I do probably more than 95% of my ripping by hand, and all of my resawing by hand.

The thing about ripping is that you just have to do it to get better, and you need to be able to sharpen your own saw. I don't know what prices are like for you, but I probably have $400 sunk into saws to rip with, mostly because I'm not going to spend days going to yard sales looking for a $10 saw that really isn't like the $60 saw that I actually want.

I can rip with both hands now, and generally in a long session will also sit on my saw bench and rip toward me between my legs (two handed) or go back and forth between hands, just depends on what the wood allows and how much planing I have to do (no sense in ripping once a week and burning up your dominant arm in a half hour and then having to stop).

My use of hand saws has nothing to do with space or affording things (though I do like no longer having a stationary table saw in my shop), it's that ripping by hand makes my brain feel good. it's a tactile symphony, and it's just enough physical activity to feel like a brisk walk - the kind that makes your head/mind very clear.

 

[thetyreman]

Thought I'd get the old thing out and have a go (rip saw that is)

Board over 2 saw horses, knee as hold down:

Move board/saw horse to avoid cutting it in two. You could sit astride and do a two handed hold with the saw vertical - to relieve the monotony and the back ache

Doing OK with bit of 3" pitch pine

4 t.p.i. close up

Very easy and very adaptable with 2 saw horses. Quick and straight cut if set is open enough and wood not moving about. I've done it often this way (when I've had to) with occasional changes of position. Always well supported, wide or narrow, long or short, with direct arm movement / efficient saw stroke.
Splitting a board the other way and you have to use the vice as per the vids above.

Thanks a lot for the demonstration, Jacob.

I'm going to have to get myself a couple of saw horses as I don't actually own any!

making sawhorses was my very first project, all you need is some 4 x 2 pine, and some plywood, I'd recommend making some over buying them. check this video out by paul sellers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ultj5I1d7zw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t85AvNr7yyI

 

[Jacob]

Main thing about saw horses is to make the feet extend slightly further than the top in plan, so it's inherently stable - you could stand right on the very end without it tipping over

 

[John Brown]

Thought I'd get the old thing out and have a go (rip saw that is)

Board over 2 saw horses, knee as hold down:

Move board/saw horse to avoid cutting it in two. You could sit astride and do a two handed hold with the saw vertical - to relieve the monotony and the back ache

Doing OK with bit of 3" pitch pine

4 t.p.i. close up

Very easy and very adaptable with 2 saw horses. Quick and straight cut if set is open enough and wood not moving about. I've done it often this way (when I've had to) with occasional changes of position. Always well supported, wide or narrow, long or short, with direct arm movement / efficient saw stroke.
Splitting a board the other way and you have to use the vice as per the vids above.

My respect for Jacob has gone way up, knowing that he is invisible.

 

[D_W]

You guys who have never sawn two handed and maybe have some problems one handed, try sitting astride as mentioned above. I have a different saw bench than a normal sawhorse or expensive sawbench - it's just a 2x12 cut to pieces - something you can make in an hour, but just high enough for my saw not to hit the ground. The front of it is a notch that extends about 10 inches past the end of the saw bench. Instead of having legs that come out laterally from the top (I would saw them), it is straight up and down.

I intended to try the proportions and then make a better one, but decided long ago I'd rather have cheap. That way when you saw into it a little over time, or use the top in a pinch to mix epoxy or something, you'll never be upset about it.

The key to sawing for a long time sitting astride is to try to keep both of your hands toward the bottom of the saw handle. If you have one at the top and done at the bottom, the top hand will steer a little bit, but more importantly, the hang of the saw will change mid stroke with your hand up on the top horn and the saw will bite and stall.

I'd still stress (as I set out to learn to do all of this by hand, despite reading from a lot of people that it's impossible to get anything done - it's certainly less productive if you're going to cut 300 linear feet of sticking for cabinet face frames), there is no replacement for doing and perceiving. I have about 8 rip saws set up and going. I probably use 3 on a regular basis, which sounds ridiculous, but as you start to sharpen your own saws, there is an ideal point where a saw has just sort of a velcro/resistive feeling, but with a filing kind of feel. That will differ by wood type and thickness. You'll probably cut a lot of 4/4 material and some thicker than that, but the way ash or purpleheart grips a saw (the teeth, not the side of the saw) is drastically different than the way cherry does. A saw set up well for cherry may be a bear to get through 8/4 ash. It's much easier just to have a few saws that work well. Way different than planes where having a million planes is a detriment to using a couple of them as productively as possible.

I get that guys say they can't physically saw, but I am no physical specimen - you learn the subtleties of sawing and you will enjoy it. I have kids, so it's getting harder to get shop time, but my ideal project, instead of just working on the weekend and trying to shove everything through power tools, is doing the dimensioning by hand and doing it perhaps an hour in the evening if I can find that time and there aren't kid events. It's a whole lot more interesting than jogging, and it builds neurons in your hands and brain - you'll get better at other things in woodworking (the fine work) even though you're not doing the fine work.

I think sawing left handed would be difficult for a beginner, but if you mostly master dominant hand sawing, then, I think it took me about a half hour of sawing to get completely comfortable ripping left handed. All of the subtleties that you learn translate over to the second hand really quickly.

 

[Jacob]

....

My respect for Jacob has gone way up, knowing that he is invisible.

I was behind the camera. Can't be in two places at once!
Saw horses are spot on for ripping, and so adaptable and so many other uses. I can't see a problem which a purpose made rip-saw bench thing would solve - there isn't one.

 

[ED65]

My respect for Jacob has gone way up, knowing that he is invisible.

He also has the arm proportions of an orangutan as established in previous discu... arguments about the purpose of the saw nib :mrgreen:

 

[Jacob]

...... arguments about the purpose of the saw nib :mrgreen:

What argument?
The nib (or a similarly placed felt tip mark) is very useful if you are sawing through a wide board and can't see the end of the saw. Saves pulling it out too far and bending it on the way back in.
Can't argue with that!

 

[D_W]

....

My respect for Jacob has gone way up, knowing that he is invisible.

I was behind the camera. Can't be in two places at once!
Saw horses are spot on for ripping, and so adaptable and so many other uses. I can't see a problem which a purpose made rip-saw bench thing would solve - there isn't one.

I kind of feel the same way in reverse - I wouldn't give up the 2x12 bench for a pair of saw horses. Cost to manufacture is probably similar (no interest in a nice saw bench that I'd have to protect, though).

 

[Bm101]

What I like is that a ripping by hand saw question has degenerated into a personal debate about saw nibs, Not only that but we have a member called Nib who has been a member for a good while and never made any posts except liking this comment about saw nibs on this thread about ripping by handsaw.
Everything you need to know about the internet in one post.


(Hello Nib! BTW :-D )
Regards
Chris

 

[The Nib]

Hello Chris!

It seemed like good a time to introduce myself.
I do like Jacobs explanation though.

While being out from the shadows for a brief moment I want to say hello to all and thank everyone on here for sharing their knowledge.
Being a complete newbie to woodworking I have spent hours reading this forum. The amounts of skills and knowledge on here are both impressive and inspiring.
Thanks for having me.

 

[Jacob]

Hi Nib
Actually is was the rip saw in the picture which revealed to me the function of the nib. Previously I'd never had a saw with a nib and never given it a thought, though as a beginner I had put a felt tip mark on a modern hand saw.
First time I used it I was just getting going with full length strokes when I though to myself "oops careful how long is this saw?" At the same moment, on the upstroke, the nib popped out to say "this long"!
Eureka!

 

[John Brown]

What I like is that a ripping by hand saw question has degenerated into a personal debate about saw nibs, Not only that but we have a member called Nib who has been a member for a good while and never made any posts except liking this comment about saw nibs on this thread about ripping by handsaw.
Everything you need to know about the internet in one post.


(Hello Nib! BTW :-D )
Regards
Chris

Good observation. I'll add my own: as usual, it wasn't Jacob that started it.

 

[Jacob]

:lol:
Er, I probably did start it! I said earlier "...use the full length of the blade. If the blade doesn't have a nib its a good idea to make a felt tip mark 3 to 4 inches from the end so you don't pull it right out and buckle it on the way back in."
I know it is blasphemy and might trigger a lot of dismal droning about how "nobody knows what the nib is for" etc. but I do think it's worth knowing.

 

[John Brown]

Yeah. I meant you didn't start the "personal debate" part.