This introduction to the rip-saw covers jointing, sharpening, setting, and tips for cutting a straight line with the grain. Visit www.blackburnbooks.com for books and to sign up for lessons in Woodstock NY.
Great video! After ripping with hand saws the last couple of years I haven't used my table saw in over a year... It is just easier to use the hand saw. I have a large 4 1/2 tpi that I use for bigger cuts and a 6tpi panel saw I use for closer rips and large tenons. At first I thought I would never use my hand saws but now I use them almost exclusively
I have never knowingly seen a saw wrest, but I have seen and used the plier type saw set tool. The wrest looks a lot simpler, with a bit steeper learning curve to use.
Well, Japanese saws are not actually that different, the difference is the file and only one face of the tooth is sharpened at one time. The micro bevel on the cross cut teeth is actually a blessing in disguise since you can go like 5 sharpenings just touching up the micro bevel until you need to deepen the gullet, the micro bevel is done without any fleam to the file, you instead use slope to add the fleam effect teeth with no micro bevel have, this 3 dimensional tooth shape also produces a cleaner cut because the tooth does not only have a pointy end, but also the "blade" of the tooth is now like a skewed rabbet plane or something. For file stability on the micro bevel I find it easy to just rest the edge of the file on a piece of hakcsaw blade held in the tooth gullet. Anyway, Japanese saws do make for good joinery saws and panel saws, I'm probably still going to use continental european frame saws for long rough rip cuts and huge crosscuts, they are heavy, absurdly long and demanding to use, but they are also the fastest saws I know of.
True, but I also enjoy using a tool that many before me have used - there's a nice sense of continuity and I don't feel so bad about filling up the landfill.
