Some Basic Woodwork Skills

Step 2 Basic Right Angled Cuts.

When marking wood, the same as when doing any kind of geometry by hand, it's easy but mistaken to view the marks you're making as mathematical abstractions; just as a dot can be thought of as a point with no dimensions but in fact just represents it, so too it's easy to think of the lines you make on wood to represent cuts as having no width. This is a first step toward making bad cuts, and over the entirety of a piece of furniture, a millimetre here and there all adds up to something visibly wonky.

You have to be conscious of the width of your lines and the width of your sawblade to cut precisely. I also use arrow marks to indicate which side of the line to cut on.

Also, when marking, don't go around the sides in sequence, because there's a good chance your last line won't quite line up when it meets the first one you made. Instead mark one side, then one adjacent one going from the marked corner down, then the other adjacent one in the same way. This allows you to get all three as uniform as possible. You don't really need a line on the underside.

To start the cut, position your saw on one corner of the markings and draw it gently backward to make a notch. You can rest one thumb one the top of the wood and the side of the blade to keep it aligned. Repeat to make the notch deeper, then gradually flatten the saw off and start working it forwards and backwards to make a shallow cut all the way along the top line.

Don't push down on the saw at any point while cutting or it will stick; just work it backwards and forwards and the saw teeth will go through the wood easily.

Now you've got the top cut shown in image 2, it's tempting to quickly saw all the way through. If you do it this carelessly, the saw will wander all over the place either side of the other lines, then also splinter the bottom as it goes through.

You have to cut squarely along *all* of your lines to actually get a square end, so working in the groove you've made, tilt the saw and work a similar groove into two of the other lines you've marked one at a time.

You've now got three grooves that will keep your blade straight as you saw through the wood left in the centre (pic 3). You can go through this quite fast now, but slow down near the end so as not to ruin the surface underneath. I find it best to work with the saw tilted right back at this point to slowly cut through the last bit, this minimises splintering.

Comments

[sixstringsandrhyme]

good tip.  I also like to add a couple guide lines about 1/8 or 1/16 of an inch on either side of my actual cut point....it just makes it easier for me to keep my eye on target when i have them there... :)