Reply To: Shooting board question
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Thank you all for your replies. Eventually I seem to have succeeded.
My saw is a 12″ 13 tpi brass back tenon saw. I’ve recently fettled it to the best of my ability (jointed, sharpened, set, hammered to reduce and unify set, went over set with diamond stone). The saw, which I got second hand, also had a slight curve along its length which I straightened using Paul’s technique of putting the saw in the vise and pulling lightly in the opposite direction.
Before reading your comments, I already tried correcting the cuts by marking a new knife wall and paring with a chisel. The first thing I learning is that I must improve the lighting in my work area. Also – I ended up not paring square all along the knife wall. This resulted in some parts square and others at a wider angle. Although I kept to the knife wall itself, when inserting the wedge the areas with the wider angle compressed more, because they had less wood there and the entire angle changed.
I ended up making a new shooting board and seem to have succeeded by changing my sawing technique. In Paul’s videos once he establishes the initial cut he saws confidently and deliberately building up a momentum, whereas I initially sawed too slowly and cautiously. I tried saw more deliberately – but actually with much less force, and to saw square down, and surprisingly enough the cuts came out much better. The earlier slower cuts actually twisted more.
Using a batten would probably have solved this, either to guide the saw or chisel. Might use this technique next time.