The Rip Sawing Thread

[Ernest DuBois]

After all it's the only fair thing. Some will always say there is so much waste when it comes to squaring up with an axe. It can be that way but has nothing inherently to do with the technique, just other choices along the way. Here I have decided to do what I could to salvage salvageable wood to the outside of my beam.

A massive rip cut

I always like so much the tool traces left on the surfaces after such a handling.
Especially this one, a real classic indication of work performed.

A consequence of taking that much mass off the outside of the beam is the beam will bow inwards towards that cut so hopefully there is enough margin to straighten it out afterwords.

And by the way the handle of this particular axe has been loose and causing problems. The solution? Drop the shoulder so the head can re-seat itself further down.

 

[Ernest DuBois]

The rip-sawed surface was short-lived.
Roughing back to or within a pair of millimeters from the line marking the edge of the beam.

This work goes ahead in one direction, chopping mostly perpendicular to the axis, moving forward working with the only axe I like to use for this work.
At the other end of the beam time to switch to your favorite broadaxe

Now I like to stay at that end and facing the same direction, work backwards towards where I just came from taking off down to the line

And leaving the final surface you like and I like a regular, sloping pattern, showing emphatic axe handling, flat surface, with prominent traces that an axe has been here.

 

[Square_peg]

I applaud your efforts. That's an awful lot of sawing for even a high quality pull saw like that. If I have to make that cut by hand I'll reach for Disston thumb hole saw.

 

[Ernest DuBois]

I'm sure that I was more than an hour busy with that cut, lets say 2

 

[Square_peg]

Beautiful saw!

 

[Ernest DuBois]

The big draw-back with these, ( any Japanese saw in fact), is maintaining it. The steel is brittle and a saw set breaks the teeth so setting is with the hammer and is difficult. In the coming time I will try convincing my neighbor to fix up his huge pit saw.

 

[Square_peg]

You can resharpen the teeth with a Dremel or similar. Might need a magnifying glass to do it.

 

[Ernest DuBois]

I file, no problem the teeth are big ones but now and then they must be reset, lets say after repeated filing or if some teeth break and they all need to be re-cut for alignment. Well the teeth are configured for the rip cut so sharpening is relatively straightforward, 90 degree and all that. When it comes to setting I go to the anvil and use a small setting hammer but this is a skill I didn't fully developed and doubt I have the patience ever to really and taking it to a local saw sharpener is pointless, they have no clue how to handle Japanese saws. Do you know, I met a Japanese saw sharpener a few years back, in his late 70s, he has two apprentices working in his shop under his training, sharpening saws every day all day long now for 8 years and still not considered masters.

My filing set-up on another saw, cross-cut, much more difficult and I would not even attempt setting.Japanese saws of all sizes and configurations are incredible to use but I have found owning them is almost a dead-end road because outside of Japan there is limited infrastructure. You can get the saws with throw-away blades but there is no comparison between them and the real saws.