aware of with these saws is that the blade is difficult to re-sharpen. Most
blades can be replaced.
Nowlet’smakesomesawdust.(Remembertouseasoftwoodsuchas
white pine to begin with.)
The first thing to do is to secure the work piece so it doesn’t move.
Clamping the piece to a bench or a sawhorse can do this. If you have a
bench with a vise on it, all the better, and if you don’t hang on, we’ll
build you one later on. The main thing to keep in mind is the height of
the work piece. It should be about waist high to be able to get the
shoulder and back muscles behind the saw. If the work piece is higher,
you end up using mostly your arm muscles to push and pull the saw
through the wood, which will wear you out much faster.
If you are right handed, your left foot should be in front of your right
foot about shoulder width apart. The important thing is to be well
balanced to offset the rocking motion of the push and pull strokes.
Start your kerf cut on the edge furthest away from you. If you’re using a
western saw place the saw teeth that are closest to the handle on the
edge of the wood and pull the saw across. This will start a small kerf for
the blade to ride in. You may have to repeat this two or three times
before you can start pushing the saw blade through the wood. If you’re
using a Japanese saw you will want to set up the same way except you
willwanttosettheteethofthesawontheendofthebladedownonthe
edge and push through the wood. Depending which type of Japanese
saw you’re using it may be too thin to push through without bending. If
that’s the case simply try pulling the blade through instead. The nice
thing about Japanese saws is that they usually have small teeth and a lot
of tpi so they’re easy to get started in the wood either way. Whichever
blade you’re using start out with short strokes pulling and pushing.
Once you have the blade moving through the wood without catching
start using the whole length of the blade. By doing this you let the saw
teeth do most of the work. After you have cut about a quarter of the way