How to saw CORRECTLY

okay so when working at Axminster i often let people try out new sores and let them find what the best option is for them but I've noticed a common pattern in people where they firstly struggle to get the sword to actually start in the cut secondly to actually get it square and thirdly to get it tracking straight through the wood in the direction that's intended so in this video I'm going to show you some techniques that I learnt that helped me tremendously when starting off and also some things that I've taught other people that I've seen brilliant results from so let's go alright so first thing I'm going to show you is how to hold the saw so coming close so first thing I noticed that people normally do at this stage is they pick the saw up with all four fingers crammed into the handle like that and that feels incredibly uncomfortable you can sort of see right now how bunched up my fingers are that's because saws like this are actually designed for you to hold them like this three finger grip with your index finger pointing down the spine and this helps you keep the saw straight in the cut because your finger is stabilizing that blade if you have all your fingers crammed in here you'll see that I'm able to move the blade side to side without moving my wrist whatsoever whereas if I have my finger pointed in here it's much more difficult to move that blade side side unless I'm moving my entire wrist with it so having your index finger down there it gives you more stability to start with that's the first thing to do secondly you don't want to be giving this a death grip around the handle you need to be holding this with firm enough pressure that you don't drop it but not so much that you start cutting off the blood supply to your fingers and a good way to show this is like this if I come round this way you can see that I'm actually able to hold the saw with just one finger the bottom of the handle there is gripping on the underside of my hand and if I point my index finger along the spine like that that's one finger underneath supporting the weight of the handle on the bottom of the handle here that's hurt under my hand so that's taking the weight of the saw plate and then my index finger that is giving me the forward motion on that so I could actually cut a bit of wood like that if I really wanted but obviously gripping it properly is just the normal thing do so when I was first told that I was gripping the handle too heavily firstly it was an absolute godsend because it gave me an understanding as to why my wrist was cramping up so much when I was trying to dovetail with this thing the best metaphor I've heard from it is from Chris Schwarz when I was on a course of him a few years ago he said you got to hold that like you're holding a baby bird you want to hold it tight enough that it doesn't fly away but you also want to hold it loose enough that you don't crush it to death obviously bit more there to come and reset in that exact way but that's how I pictured it so anyway first thing to fix your grip index finger down the blade don't hold it stupidly tightly next thing we're gonna sort out is actually getting a square cut across the length of timber right so I've taught them how to grip the saw the next thing we've got to do is show them how to get a square cut so what I've done is squared line across the top of this timber and square some lines down the front and done that all over and we're gonna cut to these lines now so usually when they're testing out this sauce the first thing that this person will do is start on the back here and drag back now can you hear that sound of it sort of jumping up and down like that it's sort of like a vibrator what that is is with these western-style sores it's actually the teeth jumping up and down like that and what that's done is also created lots of little serrations at the bottom this cut till after they've done this a few times with a western-style saw obviously you want to push forward to make it cut if you then put that in here and try and push forward the teeth are going to sink into those marks and it makes it difficult to start so this is usually problem number one and it's what's causes you to jump outside of the cut and just like skim across the top of it like that incredibly annoying instead what you want to be doing is focusing on doing a push cut let's get a light in a bit closer so by pushing you're working with the saw exactly as it's intended and that gives you hear it smooth cut off all the way through and let's switch you through to the other side now and you can see what I'm doing my thumb here so what my thumb is doing here is it's actually resting against the saw plate now on the bottom of this sort of see you've got the teeth and they're slightly poked out from the edge of the saw plate so you don't want your thumb sort of crammed up right against that because it's just gonna put small cuts on there instead make use of the round over on your thumb just use the very tip of it to press against the saw plate and then where your thumb curves away that gives clearance for the kerf here and what I'm doing my thumb here is it giving me micro adjust movements along the width of the timber here so just by slightly rolling it forwards or rolling it backwards that is what's allowing me to move this sauce side-to-side so what I'll do is simply put the saw down roughly where I want it and then micro adjust it with my thumb by simply rolling it forwards or backwards so here I want to cut on the right hand side of the lines and it's going to roll it until I get it there and then simply push you see I'm starting with light pressure for now I'm not death-grip in the hand or anything I'm pointing a finger down the blade and my thumb is actually still there giving it location if you move your thumb away too early on in the cut it still has the sort of potential to rock the blade especially as a beginner if you haven't got that muscle memory keeping your thumb there it just gives you a good point of reference for it now let me show you something else here as well so if I put the soleplate down this bit of timber and line it up with one of those lines see their reflection in the salt plate there kind of just looks like the timber carries on right through it however if I slightly angle it you see that it's bent the timber that is a good indication to show you that you're not cutting square if you don't have any lines to work see for example you can simply do it by the reflection and just do it by eye and see if that reflection all lines up perfectly and so here we go getting an even closer I want to cut to this line here let's say that this is my waist I want to remove it so obviously I don't want to be cutting directly on that line because that could be the top of a dovetail for example you want to be cutting on the waist side so put the saw in it going to slightly roll my thumb and then I'm gonna move that until I get to the waist side and simply push again pushing like that and what you might notice it is instead of committing to following that whole line start with so getting all the teeth on that plate engage with the material and pushing through that gives you more points for the teeth dig in and it also increases your chances of the saw blade sort of skating across it like that instead what I'd recommend you to do instead of committing to that entire line on one pass simply angle the saw up a little bit start at the back just start cutting and then start leveling the saw blade out and just blow away the dust as you go so you can still see that line and there we go and unfortunately my lens can't focus this close but you might be able to see that I've left the pen line there and the saw kerf is right next to that the other ways to do this is starting at the front here again commit to only a small bit and then start tipping and sore forwards and level it out that way both work exactly the same but from what I've seen it's better than committing to that entire cut because your saw is still able to skate well over the place look if I roll my thumb that saw blade is all over the place if I tip it forwards and roll my thumb it's dug in I can't you just can't move that whatsoever so commit to either the front or back corner and level the saw blade out and then it will be much easier to follow that line along the top perfectly square now what I will say before moving on any further is that these rules still apply with Japanese saws you can still start the cut on the back corner or you can start it on the front and level it out the only thing that is different is that Japanese saws cut on the pull stroke meaning what I said about using Western saws and starting the cut by doing a few drags back and then it being difficult to start Japanese saw of course you can obviously drag them back to start the cut that's why these are usually great for beginners because it makes starting the cut so much easier so the next thing we're going to do is cutting these lines plumb so back to the vise now if you watch my video on what sauce do you need this is where ghent sauce can come and bite you in the ass when you use them because like I said in that video when you pick them up you have the potential of picking them up ever so slightly twisted so if you follow the methods I just showed you it's entirely possible to get that line across the top perfectly square but if you've tipped the blade obviously not this much but if you have tipped the blade somewhat it has the potential to start tracking sideways even though it feels like you've picked that sore up exactly the same each way however if you have a pistol grip one like this you pick it up your hand is locked in exactly the same position so this stage takes muscle-memory more than anything it takes a lot of practice I would recommend doing exactly what I've done here draw yourself loads of square lines along the top and loads of square lines down the front and literally just practice cutting them the advantage to the method I've just shown you is that you can attack these lines in two different stages firstly you can establish your line along the top and then secondly you can focus on cutting plum rather than doing the whole thing one trying to get this all lined up at the top while also making sure you're going to go perfectly plum do it in two stages then you have less to think about now we've got one line here that I haven't attack yet so let's get a light to start with oh it's getting so dark in here so first thing we're going to do get this line established along the top so I'm cutting on the left-hand side here so let's call this side of the line the waist angle the sore up I'll see tilt my thumb to move that blade laterally and then start cutting so I'm blown away the material as I go so now I can see that line being established and there we go the line along the top is now perfectly square and now the only thing I need to focus on is cutting plumb now let's look at actual soaring technique here so when you're sawing what you want to do is make sure that your elbow your wrist and the front of your sword plate is all in line if you start cranking your over out like this you're gonna sort of want to start going off at an angle and do saw all sorts of weird things so firstly make sure that elbow is in now obviously that's just hit my body so that implies the next thing you need to do you need to move over like this so now I'm moved to the side my elbow wrist and the front of the sort is all in line and what I'm doing is I'm looking over the blade and I'm looking at either side of the sword blade and the offset of my eyes is allowing me to see that side of the cut and that side of the cut it takes a while to sort of get your eyes to adjust to it it looks incredibly weird to start with because it's like you're purposely not focusing on something when you're establishing this line along the top in stage 1 of getting a square cut I generally move to the side and just really focus in like this so I'm not looking on this side because that's gonna be my waist I'm just watching that line as I lower the blade down but when it comes to actually cutting plumb I will shift over and look at either side the blade get all of my limbs in line and then simply cut like this now like I said before you only need two fingers to support this saw your index finger to point it in the right way and the one underneath all the others I can take off the handle like pressure it's still cutting now this is quite a thick fit of material and this dovetails or is on its fifth year since I bought it and I still haven't sharpened it yet so it is cutting a little bit slowly but just don't be tempted to start really pressing down yes it will cut quicker but you're going to start bending the saw plate and I can already see that has started wandering across on my line it's a bit annoying but look hardly any of my fingers are engaged in the handle the only thing that's pushing it into the cut is the weight of the saw and also this hook here where it's pushing into my hand that's giving it a bit of downforce as well and so there we go that is how you saw correctly so quick recap do not death grip it this handle only needs two fingers support on it that's the support from the bottom of your hand and then there you go that is fully supported point your index finger down the blade like that and that will give you the right direction in which you're cutting if you cramp it all four fingers then it's going to be wobbling all over the place and you're gonna get blue fingers cuz they can't breathe in terms of starting the cut with regards to western style swords do not drag them back because they'll start bumping up and down and then that'll make it even more difficult for you to get it started if you do want to drag it back consider trying a Japanese saw going into store and giving one of those go because they are great for beginners and also when squaring the cut line along the top work from the back to the front or the front from the back do not work perpendicular to the top because the add more potential to scoot the blade side-to-side also use your thumb to support the blade on the sides to help you locate it in the right place and when it comes to the actual sawing make sure that your elbow wrist and sword plate is in all alignment is in all alignment is in alignment will go for so make sure that's going all the way through the cut nice and straight if you crank your elbow out it's just gonna scoot sideways and what else don't push down too hard obviously that comes in to hold death-grip thing just a light touch let the saw do the work for you that's pretty much it at the end of the day what this takes is a lot of practice you're probably not going to get it straight away if you do credit you it took me bloody ages to get it all worked out but you're just gonna have to do exactly what I've done here drawn loads of lines and just keep cutting to them occasionally you will have off days where most I'll have off days after five years but it will improve over time and it will become a lot more natural to you what's important is getting the groundwork down now so that you enforce good habits as you progress so anyway hope that helped let me know if you have any questions at all in the comments or SI post your opinions below I will try and reply to as many of you as possible and I'll see you I really not do that in the next video [Music]

Channel: Matt Estlea

Views: 409,401

Rating: 4.9240117 out of 5

Keywords: how to use a saw, how to saw correctly, how to cut dovetails, how to cut square, using handsaws, woodworking techniques, woodwork, how to cut plumb, western or japanese saws, beginner woodwork, lesson, how do i cut square with a handsaw, sawing practice, sawing wood, handsaw, dovetail saw, using a dovetail saw, how to use a dovetail saw, how to use a handsaw correctly, how to saw straight, how to saw wood with a handsaw, cut to cut joints by hand, matt estlea, sawing, saw

Id: C5OzZNVGnXQ

Length: 13min 19sec (799 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 18 2017