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RWW 191 One Step to Better Hand Sawing

17 comments
10 years ago
Hand Sawing     Videos

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that sawing accuracy is the single most important hand skill that anyone should have. Being able to plane a board is nice, and handle a chisel is helpful too. But sawing to your line and keeping the cut plumb (or not if that’s what your layout line tells you) will make the planing and chiseling so much easier and faster.

Saying this and achieving accuracy with a hand saw are two different things. But better hand sawing is not something that will take you years or even hours to achieve. I think you can do it with one step, and I hope this video will show you what I mean.

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Ethan

“… with one simple step. A STEP BACK, that is!”

That was cheesy goodness right there, Shannon. Great tip. It’s something I do when I’m at my bench hook or using my miter saw, but I do struggle with using hand saws on my saw bench, so I’ll see if that is what I’m doing wrong.

    Shannon

    If nothing else Ethan, film yourself sawing. Once from straight on and once in profile. You will see where and when the saw goes out of the sawing plane and that will help you diagnose any technique issues.

Norm Reid

Timely advice. I’m getting ready to cut some bridle joints and want them to be accurate. This should help.

    Shannon

    That’s one point I didn’t cover Norm. When cutting “inline” with a board like with a tenon or a bridle joint most people have better success because the typical work holding strategy is in a leg vise or front vise and your hip is against the bench. This more naturally positions your body in line with the saw plate. But is also answers the question I get at least once a week, “why are my tenons good but my dados suck?”

Martin

Thanks for the great tips Shannon. I have been trying to improve my sawing of late. Admitedly I chose a poor project to start with (a giant slab Roubo bench), so I’ve been having problems getting straight tenons through 6″ stock, but this really helps.

I also wish there was similar instruction on proper technique with Japanese pull saws. I ended up having to use a pull saw to do some of those tenons because my backsaws weren’t tall enough.

    Shannon

    I’m not a big Japanese saw user, no reason Western is just where I started and have kept with it. However I have used them a little bit. I don’t think you will find anything terribly different. You still want your stoke to fall in the same plane as the plate so position your body to get out of the way. Its the same principle.

Andy Cleland

Great video! These biomechanics issues can have such an impact on our success, but they were very difficult to convey in the old books, if the authors even understood them. Videos like this demonstrate the techniques in an easily understood fashion and can cut years off of someones learning time.

Sean Baker

As always, super helpful video! I have a bad habit of curving my stroke a bit when crosscutting on a bench hook – any specific tips for that, or does that fall under the general issue of not giving my arm/elbow enough room to swing naturally?

    Shannon

    That sounds exactly like what is happening. Your body is in the way and forcing a deviation from the sawing plane. Like I said, one step to fix everything. 🙂

Larry

Great video Shannon. I ordered 2 saws from Jim Bode last week, crosscut and rip can’t wait for them to get here.