When developing sawing skills, especially at the start, there’s a tendency to have the saw get stuck. This happens when starting the cut when the teeth make little divots in the wood and then dig into them. Those divots can form when you start the cut by placing the full weight of the saw onto the work and then draw back. The saw cannot cut when drawn back, so it just bounces on the points of the teeth, which forms the divots. Then, when you push forward, the saw binds into those divots and seems to jam.

One fix for this is to learn to do what Paul describes as “just brush the saw on the surface.” To do this, you unweight the saw, bearing most of the weight via the handle. You can then move the saw back and forth along the start of the cut. It is like making light lines when sketching or like rehearsing the cut. With such a light touch, the saw doesn’t make divots to get stuck in yet can still sort of scratch out the start of the cut. For me, it feels like I am also getting my arm moving in the proper line. This all happens in a few seconds and as things feel right and the saw is engaging the wood, you let more of the saw’s weight fall onto the work until you are fully engaged in the cut. My guess is that this when you see Paul give a final, definitive push forward and then clear the teeth. You don’t need to do that last step, really, but it might help you get a sense of how quickly and progressively this happens in the first moments of getting started with a cut.

There’s a good chance that this is the essence of “More experience required” in the left hand column of your chart. You can probably develop this in an afternoon by just starting a bunch of cuts working across a piece of scrap. If you get stuck, look and see if you’ve formed the divots. If so, just move over and try again. Later, when you have a feel for things, come back and see if you can overcome those divots. You’ll be surprised to find that the secret is to float the saw (unweight it) and gently work into, through, and past those divots.

There, now you just need one tenon saw. 🙂