How to Saw Straight & Square Across Wood | Paul Sellers 

jesus! this guy makes it look effortless.

Dear Mr. Sellers. I am so happy and thankfull for your content. I got in contact with your videos a couple of years ago as I planned to build a workbench. I saw you planing in your garden. It was spring, the laburnum tree in the background stood in his brightest yellow, the seagulls were yelling in the sky. I watched those videos over and over again. I learnd about the knife wall and I was introduced to the poor mans router. "This is you, working real wood." I heard you say and I saw the smile on your face. I believed you then and I believe you now: every word you said/say and every expression of your feelings. Dear Mr. Sellers, this is you, creating sense. Please, keep on doing that. Whithout we have ever met, your spirit (I dont't have a better word right now) has become a little, wonderfull part of some aspects in my life. Thank you for that. Yours sincerely, lav val from Germany

9 29 of mastery Using all your senses including sound and leg position: standing ovation Paul

"I'm listening to the wood", topnotch. Thank you for all your time.

I really appreciate Paul's demeanor as a craftsman and a teacher, which I probably didn't realize a couple years ago when I found the channel. It literally brings woodworking down to earth for a regular Joe like me. ❤it!

Thank you! There are so many "master" classes available these days, but very few I've found that focus on elementary skill development. I live for this kind of thing!

Thank you for sharing your skills with us. I have learned so much from your beautifully made videos. You are a great tutor!

I have gotten so used to modern machinery that I have forgotten the basics and the satisfaction that came with it Thanks.....your videos inspire me

So nice to see such a well made video with such a clear explanation focused on a single how-to.

The knife wall/chisel combination is brilliant. It's humbling and if it wasn't for Paul's five decades of experience, I would feel like a knucklehead for some of the deplorable cuts I've made.

Thank you, thank you. It's all in the approach and blade angle. I will be practicing today. You are a one in a million tutor.

Thank you so much Paul for the sawing straight tip. Just tried it and I went from being approximately 1/4" or more off the line to almost dead on. Not perfect but much, much better. Love your teaching videos!

Hi Paul. I have been watching your videos since I retired 3 years ago. Taking up wood working from my engineering background. Pretty much on ever occasion in my work shop some aspects of your teachings comes to mind. Hopefully making me a better wood worker. Thank you keep up the good work very well delivered.

Again you explain it so well And it all makes sense thank you Well Done

Your knowledge and experience is invaluable, thanks for sharing. Your videos well done and communicated. Thank you for your posts.

Thanks Paul. I always struggled to saw straight, but using your method I can now cut nice and square 👍

I actually have two purposes for your videos... Education and Relaxation! I often put a random video on and use it as a backing track to yoga! Something very soothing about the sound of woodworking.

There has never been a basic or beginner course that I repeated where I did not pick up something new. Paul, your training is no exception. I ALWAYS learn something. Thank you.

You hit the nail on the head - until I seriously started working with hand saws, every single saw I ever used was a worn and dull wreck. I have seen so many people take a beautifully sharp saw and practically bulldog it within 1/2" of it's poor life, myself included originally. It is so nice to see and hear just how sharp your saws are as it gives us all an example to work towards. Thank you!

One of the issues here is patience. It is as much a skill to be learned as the woodworking techniques.

The biggest mistake I keep making is to grip the saw like I’m trying to save its life. Loose grip, guide it through the wood - and get a decent saw. Doesn’t cost a fortune: if I’m not mistaken Paul is using a £25 handsaw by Spear & Jackson, nothing fancy or antique. Decent Japanese saws are affordable as well.

This is what years of practice does for technique. Great information, thanks.

Just realizing how old and not sharp my saws are. Great video.

Mr. Paul your videos are very interesting and impressive to guide about the basics of wood works especially for beginner.

This is great, thanks! Now I'm heading back to your sharpening tutorial...

Thank you Paul for another very informative video. Sawing square has been a definite problem for me most of my woodworking life. Having a well set up saw and patience seems to be the items I am missing most but your videos continue to press home the need to prepare your tools and your attitude properly and the work becomes much more enjoyable and productive. Have a good week ahead.

This is awesome, I haven't learnt how to use a saw and I constantly veer it off. Then I am now realizing I have been pushing down, thank you.

I never would have thought about the parallel knife walls! Definitely going to be using that moving forward. Tip of the cap to you, sir.

I've come here from your bench building video as I noticed you have a slight movement on the blade at the end of the backward stroke. Is there a reason for that 'swing', like clearing waste away from the cut? I can't cut a straight line for love nor money but I hope to rectify that now after watching this. I'm really impressed with the speed of hand tools and the reduction of noise and dust is noticeable. Thanks for the demo.

Thank you for the tips to correct use of hand tools.

Once again, thank you

Beautifully explained and executed

There are ways and there are ways to cut wood. Great demonstration, thanks!

Thank u sir i was unable to cut wood straight with a saw but after looking into ur video u just give the right idea to cut the wood straight. Thanks a lot sir 🥰☺️

Holy crap, I chiseled out my first knife wall yesterday, and he makes that look so easy to follow an unchiseled one with the saw. I feel like we all need to remember that Paul is the Olympic Gold Medalist of word working, with the best tools available to man, the rest of us scrubs working with hopeful skills and mediocre tools have a lot more opportunity to screw up a lot in little ways that we can't even necessarily identify right away.

If I can offer my tip: this works better for more square-ish section but if you mark your square lines on 2 faces as usual but then cock the wood at 45 degrees (roughly) to your vision such that what you see is a straight line across both faces and then cut it as if it were 2 dimensional then you can't really go wrong. I used this technique to cut 4x5 ish pieces for a workbench and simply opened up the jaws of a black and decker workmate a few inches such that the wood sits in the gap at roughly 45 degrees to the normal flat position if that makes sense. Think diamond vs square if you rotate the square. If you follow the line you are by definition cutting square.

Thank you Paul. Excellent tutorial, as allways... :-)

thanks for the tips.. i struggle a lot with cutting plumb, id love to get your tips there too

Thanks Paul. I'm very much a beginner. The one comment I can add to the don't press down on the saw when starting the cut is that with a sharp saw the teeth can grab so I don't even let the weight of the saw rest on the wood. In effect, I am essentially also keeping even the weight of the saw off the wood to start the cut. Your comment of just kissing the wood with the saw addresses it but may not jump out at folks. When I started doing this, it really helped me start a cut.

Excellent technique! It works for me. Thank you.

Well explained sir. Thanks for enlightening with ideas.

Good class, thank you professor Sellers

I'm starting getting into woodworking using hand tools only and my piece de resistence is still getting nice even crosscuts. This video helped a lot!

I’ve seen a few of Peters vids they are excellent

Paul wise info & techniques as always! Thank You

My sawing accuracy improved immeasurably when I used the full length of the plate. The greater width near the handle forces a straight cut.

Thank you sharing this marvellous video

Well done, thank you.

Thank you Master

Super cool video Paul. Just starting out here so you have saved me years of frustration!

Спасибо, всегда приятно повторить основы. =)

Scribe a deep line with a sharp knife.Then from the "waste end" of the wood, chisel into the scribe line. This creates a triangular shaped channel, which provides a guide for the saw. Takes a bit longer but gives an excellent result. Motorized saws are very inexpensive and give perfectly square saw cuts. Hand skills are good to have but modern machinery will create tight mortice and scarf joints that the hand sawman can only dream about.

nice and sharp saw.

Paul, eye dominance would be worth a mention too. I’m right handed but left eye dominant and find that if I don’t compensate my cut tends to veer off to the right a little, fortunately toward the waste side...

pretty sure those 26 dislikes are from powertool manufacturers

i remember nearly 60 years ago watching a carpenter add two rooms to our house when we first moved to nz. no power tools at all. he could cut a 4 x 2 with a handsaw as quickly as i have seen carpenters do it now with a skillsaw. it was dead square and a perfect fit to where it was meant to go. thats what we have lost. true skill and an understanding of real craft. a good friend of mine is a retired carpenter and he says the kids training today can't do half of what he had to learn.

For the first board, though, shouldn't the lines be squared off the same edge? In the stagehands I was taught that while the mill may make each edge perfectly 90 degrees by itself, due to flexing of the wood, that doesn't necessarily mean all the edges are perfectly squared to each other.

Very helpful, thank you.

Fantastic lesson. Thank you.

"The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection." For carpentry, I use the reflection of the pencil lines on the polished saw as a visual guide to a achieve square cuts.

A great video thank you !

excellent teacher !

Hi Paul One thing that has helped me is the reflection in the blade if you're not straight the reflection is off as well, the mirror image edge should look like it's a continuation of the real edge if it's off you see the angle in the reflection. Same with working with chisels, I use that little technique to cut edgetape square helps alot and it's quick as well

OUTSTANDING demo...thanks Paul !! I thought one had to have olympian triceps and superman grip...to work a hand saw for 2 hour jobs...lol ...(that's what my steroid boss use to say, every day. ) You've definitely proved him wrong.

Thanks for sharing that, well done

Thak you for sharing!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the tip of using the knife and not the pencil ( knife nick et al). As a beginner I already know that I will be more accurate in my cuts and I haven’t even tried it yet.

Amazing! Thank you!

Thank you, master Paul!

your saw is soooo sharp, i took like 30mins to do one cut on a 0.5 inch dowel

Thank you for sharing. Into workshop and try this until its right or no more wood.

One thing you are doing which I'm sure comes naturally to you, so naturally that it is easy to forget you are doing it, is that you use your index finger to point along the saw blade rather than using it to hold the handle. Pointing the index finger in this way helps keep the saw in line and stops it straying during the cut. Try the same cut twice in both ways and you'll soon see how much of I difference it makes. Thanks for the video. Subscribed.

thank you!

Have gone to using piece of wood aligned with cut line

When he says "nicely cut" it reminds me of Gordon Ramsay saying "beautifully done" to when he applies olive oil to a dish

Очень круто! Много полезного узнал! Спасибо, Мастер!

love your work

Thanks!

Why do you mount the face vice so far from the corner? If it was at the corner, you could clamp the board in the vice instead of having to clamp it to the top to support it right up to the cut. Why do you sometimes put the board sticking out the right side of the vice? The bench top is in the way and you have to reach your left hand across the right hand to catch the waste piece.

Thx paul

Practise! With the right saw!

A 1 tradesman👍

Thanks Paul, much appreciated. Can I ask what saws are being used in the video?

Great stuff!

For anyone that havent tried a japanese saw.. doit! My 2 cents on getting straight cuts.. I used to curve to the right as i got down into the work piece no matter what i did. (flipping turning carving tuning) But I got me a two sided japanese saw for about 30 euro and suddenly cuts where becoming straight. Main reason for me is probably because I start with a backstroke and I can keep my swing straight with the stick handle instead of a pistol grip. Also.. the blade is completely backwards like a reversed rip/cut saw... teeth almost points in and widest part is in the top... Like me... a bit backwards, right handed but plays hockey with a right shot, skateboarding goofy with my left foot first, hold the tape measure with my left and so on.

I’ve followed various instructions but I just need to see it done: can you show us how to saw accurately with a Japanese pull saw? My cuts come out inaccurately every time I go slowly-I can’t go any slower!

a stable rest and clamp are half the battle. you can hold and cut, but it wont be nearly as well as if you are free to only cut. Also, the first few cuts are half the battle also, like paul shows, i think relaxing and getting the first guide cuts are the other half the battle. understanding whats happening in the first 20 seconds of each cut is the critical time to focus on i think.

What is the TPI of the saw you are using? Is the TPI a factor here? Is it crosscut or ripcut set?

*What people miss is noticing that you were Bending BOTH of your Knees to bring your shoulders down, down, down and thus your saw stroke down, down, down such that your saw blade with holding in alignment with the cut-line you had to stay with... also, the weight of the blade alone is enough (along with the teeth angle bite) to 'draw' the blade down such that pressure or hard sawing is Not Needed to get through the wood. Slow is fast and fast is slow is the old adage, right?*

Hi.! -- thank you.

Where did you get your wooden-handled saw? Can it be sharpened? What about your knife too? I hate all the plastic tools and want to treat myself to a new saw or two, while undertaking a woodwork course to hopefully get into the trade.

Any advice on rip cutting a board? I've been using a knife line, good and good and clear, but thinking perhaps a kerfing plane would help on long rips? And how about cutting larger panels (2-4ft)?

thanks

Hey Paul. I haven't been watching ur videos for a wee while but I'm glad to be back watching bcos u make things sound very clear and concise. U show us indepth how to do the simplest things like getting these straight cuts. I'm trying to build my 1st workbench atm and I'm struggling with getting similar length cuts on all the legs. I am using a hand saw to cut my timber as well Paul so I guess that is why I'm not having any repeatable success. I have a jointer/thicknesser though so would it be possible to clamps them together and plane them down to one length that way or should I do it one board at a time? I would be very grateful if u could give me some advice or helpful tips on this process. Love the videos btw. Keep em coming Paul. Salute to u Sir from IRELAND..

5:17 onwards - not clear why using 2 lines instead of 1? Surely the saw is just getting put in 1 of the lines? Thanks

Cheers, Paul. What do you think about using miter boxes?

OK, I think I read all the comments, however, what I didn't see or missed is the importance of measuring and marking from one reference face and one reference edge ( flat, straight and planed or jointed square with a hand tool or otherwise) can help with achieving a square handsaw cut. Your advice on that aspect would be appreciated.

Pode me informar, que marca é este serrote , admiro todos os seus vídeos, gostaria de tentar adquirir um modelo destes!

Good infor

Nice sir