Spliiting Wood

Its called a hand rip saw. Old Disston’s are the best because of the stiff blade. Need to get good on sharpening it, though, or it will cut crooked. After a few white oak boards, getting a 14” bandsaw with riser won’t seem such a bad trade-off!!

Go

-- Go http://ncwoodworker.net/pp/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=730

I just bough myself a 14” Rikon, it is worth the dollars and space tonot have to resaw by hand or on the tablesaw. Turning good wood into sawdust on the planar is what decided me to save my pennies and invest in the Rikon. Having said that it is certainly doable by hand, it just takes a little longer is all.

-- "Checking for square? what madness is this! The cabinet is square because I will it to be so!" Jeremy Greiner LJ Topic#20953 2011 Feb 2

to piggyback on this idea, something I’ve been toying with (but haven’t tried), is trying to resaw with my jigsaw. I’ve got some fairly long blades that are thin and I think I could set it up right. The blade tends to wander quite a bit tho so if I work up the courage to give it a go I’ll let you know how it works out.

Rob, what section of LJ would I ask for help?

-- If you don't work, you don't eat!.....Garland, TX

Although, come to think of it, the blade wouldn’t eat as much wood but it would be difficult to match the width you’re getting with your table saw.

I’ve never done it but you might try hitting 2 sides with the table saw, then finishing the middle with a sawzall. I think it would probably work better than a jig saw. or just finishing the middle with a hand saw.

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

Next time your at your woodworking store check around and see if another woodworker who has a band saw does not live to far away. You may be able to trade something for the use of his band saw or he might be like most and do it for you.

-- John at Sugarloft Mountain........Don't argue with an idiot; people watching may not be able to tell the difference.

use a speciel frame saw
where the blade is in
the mittle of the frame

handsaw it , better than
work out in a studio

Dennis

If I were closer I would resaw it for you, but barring that as suggested above a hand rip saw will work. I have done this a few times in my more purist moments but it is HARD work and takes some practice to get a good cut. A dedicated frame saw with a very low pitch is the best tool for this but unless you plan to do a lot of resawing by hand it can be a little superfluous to have such a tool in the shop. As you post title states you can split the wood, but this is tough to do with dry wood and a lot of species don’t split nicely and you will end up ruining the whole blank. Oak, Ash, Cedar and like woods with strongly defined grain and open pores tend to split (or rive) nicely and this is at the heart of green woodworking so central to chair making and Jacobean (16th century) or earlier woodworking. Using tools like wedges and mallets or the specialized froe you can easily rive your planks along the grain producing a highly workable and stable piece. This is a whole other area of woodworking that quickly can become addicting and will suck you into the galoot world.

-- The Hand Tool School is Open for Business! Check out my blog and podcast "The Renaissance Woodworker" at www.renaissancewoodworker.com

Ive split a piece of doug fir down the middle on a table saw before but you will waste quite a bit of llumber. Raise the blade approx 1/8” below the center point. Example: if the board is 2” thick raise the blade to 7/8” cut one side then flip it over and cut through the other. This wil leave you with about 1/4” remaining in the center. I used a small pry bar to spilt it the rest of the way and then ran it through my planer to get the nub off and the board flat again. I’m not totally sure that i would do it again but it did work.

-- "there aren’t many hand tools as awe-inspiring as the #8 jointer. I mean, it just reeks of cast iron heft and hubris" - Smitty

Haha, too late. NOT a good idea. I tried it on a scrap piece of pine and it didn’t turn out very well. Thanks though. Tablesaw it is…