Tip #47
Resawing Techniques (continued)
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The Best Tool for the Job

The art of resawing-and the tools needed to do it - have developed over hundreds of years. Medieval “joyners” used a primitive rip saw. (I'm told that the average joyner could resaw about four boards in his lifetime-five, if he started young.) In the late eighteenth century, European cabinetmakers developed the “veneer” saw to resaw expensive, imported mahogany lumber. Then, in the mid-nineteenth century, toolmakers developed the first band-saws. This saw was tailor-made for resawing. The kerf of the bandsaw blade was narrow (sothere was little waste), and the action of the tool kept the wood pressed against the table. For over a hundred years, the bandsaw has remained the best tool for the job.

But even though nothing does it better, resawing “pushes the envelope” of the bandsaw. Often times, when you resaw a board, you're sawing through as much wood as the tool was meant to handle. On most homeshop bandsaws, the depth-of-cut is 6"-a little less than the typical width of a board in the hardwood bins of a hardwood board puts enormous demands on every part of the machine-the frame, the guides, the blade, and the motor.

Because of this, if there is anything out of whack on your bandsaw, the effects will be magnified when you're resawing. If the best tool for the job is to be an adequate tool for the job, all the parts have to be properly aligned, adjusted, and balanced to work in harmony.

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