RWW 120 A Crosscut Sawing Tip

I recently had a marathon session in my shop breaking down rough lumber to size for several projects.  Besides creating a deep burn in my sawing arm I came to realization that having multiple saws tuned for different woods make this job much easier and accurate sawing can be an incredible time saver.

So while I was sawing away I decided to shoot this little tip and keep the camera running while I tackled a 3″ thick African Mahogany board that needed to be ripped to size for my Moxon vise chop. I hope you enjoy this quick video.

During this shop session I crosscut and ripped soft woods, medium woods, and very hard woods in thicknesses ranging from 4/4 up to massive 5 1/2″ timbers.  A few steps to my saw til to select my preferred weapon was all it took to tackle this variety and the work went pretty fast.

When I first started hand sawing, I would always cut my boards at close to an inch over the finished size I needed.  Whether I was fearful of messing up the cut or just hedging my bets that extra length would be needed I can’t tell.  In hindsight I realize just how much extra work I added.  Removing that extra inch becomes a real trial and usually I would end up grabbing another saw and sawing closer to my line then spending far too much time at the shooting board or with the board clamped in a vise planing away with a Jack plane.  The reality is that the closer you can get to your line the faster the work will go and the less waste you generate.  How many times have you tried to get two parts from one board only to come up 1″ short of that goal.  How badly to you want back that “safety measure” you added to your cut now?