Tips for hand sawing small panels?

I think its probably next to impossible to get perfect straight cuts with a hand saw. I am sure you can but I wouldn’t plan on that. I think rough cutting it as best as you can and then cleaning it up with a plane and shooting board is your best option. Just mark your cuts to allow you some extra room for error.

If you keep a rather straight cut then it shouldn’t take long at all to square it up with a plane and shooting board.

-- Dan - "Collector of Hand Planes"

I’d also reccomend using a Japanese or simillar back saw, they’re the only hand saws I can cut anything close to a straight square cut with

Thanks guys. Based on your input I’ll definitely get the shooting board organized. I’ll also look into the miter box.

I put together a bench hook oriented properly to use my Japanese pull saw. One problem I’m having though is getting the cut started properly on such a thin board when it’s horizontal. There’s not much room for tilting the saw to get it going right initially.

It seems to go easier if I stand the board vertically in a vise and saw from the top – is this the right way to go? I do have to keep repositioning it in the vise so I don’t get “juddering” as I saw.

Knife the line first such that the vertical wall of the cut is along your mark and the angled wall of the cut is in the waste. This helps not only with starting the cut, but also keeping the cut on track.

-- Galootish log blog, http://www.timberframe-tools.com

Turns out for me the answer was cutting approximately to size on the waste side of the line, then using a shooting board to get the final clean edge.

I made the combination bench hook / shooting board shown in this video: http://www.youtube.com/user/arboristBlairGlenn?blend=2&ob=5#p/search/1/1z8T5_Q7OVY
including the slot in the fence to do the initial 90 degree approximate cuts. Works great!

Thanks for the suggestions!