How To Hold and Use a Handsaw

How To Hold and Use a Handsaw

It is difficult to show the position of the hand when holding the saw in a single drawing, as both sides of the saw-handle cannot be seen at once; recourse must therefore be had to two, as in the annexed illustration, in which each side of the hand is exhibited, after the manner of the obverse and reverse of a coin. In taking hold of the handle of a saw all the fingers except the first finger are passed through the loop of the hand-saw, or round the handle of the tenon saw; the handle of this kind of saw being somewhat differently formed.

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The position of the thumb and the second, third, and fourth fingers are shown at A in fig. 149, the first finger is laid along the side of the handle as at B. The position of the first finger tends to assist the operator in a wonderful degree in steadying and directing the saw, and keeping it upright. The elbow of the right arm should be kept well into the right side so as to strengthen the forearm, or rather to keep it as straight as possible, and in a direction corresponding to that of the wood that is being sawn.

The wood should be steadied with the left hand, or if it be a short piece, held firmly by it. In sawing down a plank on one or two trestles, as the case may be, the right knee and foot should be placed on the board, partly to keep the board steady and partly to keep the body of the operator steady. In ripping down a plank or in cutting a piece of wood across the grain, the hand-saw (and any saw of this shape, as the rip saw, half rip, and panel saw) should be held at an angle of 45° to the horizon, or very nearly so.

This will serve as a general guide, for the inclination of the saw must be suited in a great measure to the position of the wood and the nature of the work to be done. For example, in cutting a tenon, either with the hand-saw or tenon saw, the edge of the saw must be kept parallel to the surface of the wood that is being cut, or very nearly so. The head of the operator should be held directly over the saw, so that the eyes may look down on both sides of the saw. In beginning to make an incision with the saw, the up-and-down motion should be started very gently with very short strokes, and no force should be applied to the saw until it has entered for about an inch into the board.

As the saw cut lengthens more force may be gradually applied, but whatever force may be used it must only be applied in the downward stroke, for it is in this motion only that the saw cuts; in the upward motion it should be merely drawn up. The saw should be held upright, or in other words, the blade should always be at right angles to the surface of the board through which it is cutting, above and below, for if it inclines to the right or left to the slightest degree, it is manifest that the friction between the saw cut and the sides of the saw will be increased, by reason of the cut being out of the proper direction in relation to the plane of the surface of the board. Care should be taken to avoid short jerky strokes, but in the upward stroke the saw should be drawn up to within an inch or two of the point, and in the downward stroke pressed with force against the wood that is being sawn asunder, until the wood is an inch or two of the bottom of the blade, or very nearly so, is brought into play.

In drawing the saw upwards, on no account draw it through and out of the wood, for in the delivery of the downstroke, which follows immediately, before the operator is conscious of what has happened, the point may be driven with force against the wood, if not into it, and bent in one direction or another, thus seriously jarring and injuring the saw.

The mistakes usually made by the amateur when sawing are three in number:

Firstly, he/she is apt to put all four of his/her fingers through the looped handle of the saw, instead of laying the first finger along the side of the handle that is outwards or furthest from him/her.
Secondly, he/she forgets to keep his/her eyes directly over the saw-blade, so that he/she may see both sides of the blade, as he/she may prove to himself/herself by shutting first one eye and then the other, looking downwards on the blade as he/she does so, or what is much the same, a long narrow line of steel formed by the line of the back and the points of the teeth projecting slightly beyond it on either side. It is manifestly impossible to saw straight if the back of the saw and the saw cut already made and the line of guidance for the saw cut, if it were possible to see it as well as the back of the blade and the saw cut, be not so placed in relation to one another so as to form a narrow straight line from one end to the other of the board that is being cut.
Thirdly : Instead of allowing the arm free play and motion, and permitting it to form a connecting link between the saw and the body (as the arms in rowing form a link between the body and the oar, transmitting the weight of the body as the power which acts on the boat through the oar as a lever) it is held stiffly, and far more force applied than that which is necessary to send it through the downward stroke. This has the consequence of bending the saw too much to the left for the most part, and making the work difficult through the amount of friction that is caused by the blade and the saw cut being at an angle to the plane of the surface of the board instead of perpendicular to it. When these points have been corrected by the amateur artisan, he/she will have advanced some steps in the way of being a fairly good workman.

The above how-to information is an excerpt from an early 20th century book titled "Every Man His Own Mechanic". The information contained in an early 20th century woodworking book can be very valuable for even today's woodworker.

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