Posted by
Easy WoodCraft on
Apr 25, 2016
A well tuned rip saw is a joy to use. It's a shame that it's getting increasingly difficult to find a good rip saw at your local hardware store or home center. Fortunately you can pick up a used rip saw at auctions, at estate sales, or on the Internet for just a couple of bucks. Rip saws are typically 26" in length and have around 5 teeth per inch . Older saws feature a curved or "skew" back that was designed to reduce the weight at the toe, and reportedly improve the balance.
Teeth profile
A rip saw has chisel like teeth that are designed to cut with the grain. In effect, they work like tiny planes or chisels to cleanly shear the wood fibers. The teeth are usually sharpened at around a 3° angle and are flat at the top of the teeth to create the planing or chiseling action. Because most quality rip saws are taper ground (
see below), the set can be less aggressive.
Taper-ground
A quality rip saw will be taper-ground; that is, the blade will gradually decrease in thickness as it moves away from the teeth. The area directly above the teeth is a constant thickness to provide solid support to the teeth. Tapering the blade greatly improves the clearance of the saw in the kerf, which reduces the likelihood of binding. This, of course, also makes it easier to drive the blade through the wood.
The main reason many folks have difficulty ripping a board with a handsaw is that they're using a crosscut saw. A well sharpened rip saw will slice through wood like a hot knife through butter. (
For tips on starting a cut, see Starting A Cut in Crosscut Saw.)
Beginning stance
With your hand, elbow, and shoulder all aligned with the saw blade, start your cut with the blade at a slight angle. This makes it easier to create a starting notch to guide the blade. Use your other hand to guide the blade at the start of the cut and to secure the work piece as you continue.
Shift to a more vertical cut
To let the saw teeth do their job as tiny chisels or planes, it's best to shift to a more vertical cut as you make your way into the board. Take long, even strokes and let the saw do the work. Concentrate on putting force into the down stroke, and lighten up on the upstroke. Try to keep a firm, relatively loose grip on the handle. As always, a well sharpened saw will cut with little effort (
see Sharpening Edge Tools for details on sharpening a saw).
Chatter
Anyone who has ever used a handsaw has probably experienced chatter when the blade vibrates with a noisy chatter on the backstroke. This is a sure sign of an alignment problem: You're most likely standing to one side or the other of the cut. The remedy is to keep saw, hand, elbow, and shoulder in the same plane.
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