Well, not really. Here's the question for all of you woodworkers more
experienced than I am:
I need to practice resawing some smallish panel stock (10" wide by 22"
long). What readily available wood behaves similarly to well-dried cherry
for practice cutting?
The final project is the Shaker clock Christian Becksvoort featured in FW
#157, in cherry. (actually two of them.) I have very little experience in
working cherry, being from California. Most of what I have done is in oak,
mostly one of the red oak variants that grows out here.
The solid door panel is supposed to be 3/16" thick when done. What I have
is a spectacular piece of old cherry stock, a full 5/4 thick (S3S), given
to me by a friend. He's a luthier, and this piece has been in his 'someday
stash' for fifteen years or more. In other words, if I screw this up,
there is no more.
Available tools: Jet 16" bandsaw, with a thin kerf veneer cutting blade
recommended by a College of the Redwoods alumnus at a recent woodclub
meeting. Similar to the Woodslicer blade Highland Hardware sells,
according to those who have used both. Fence is the Fastrak, with 7" resaw
fence attachment. Most importantly, I have access to a number of friends
who know how to tune the saw better than I.
5/4 cherry, in 10+" widths, runs over $10/bf out here, and it wouldn't be
nearly as well aged.
Yes, I could pay someone to cut the stock. I could pay someone to build
the @#$%ing clock, too. But I want to learn to do this myself. (Stubborn
fellow that I am...)
So what wood should I practice on?
Patriarch
Loose the Fasttrack
Make a high fence, adjust it for blade lead and go for it.
I just finished re-sawing some 10/4 x 9" mahogany with my 16" Jet and a 1" 3
tpi resaw blade and it was perfect.
Blade Lead Information
http://www.wood-workers.com/users/charlieb/Resawing1.html
Very good example.
Dave
"patriarch" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Well, not really. Here's the question for all of you woodworkers more
> experienced than I am:
>
> I need to practice resawing some smallish panel stock (10" wide by 22"
> long). What readily available wood behaves similarly to well-dried cherry
> for practice cutting?
>
> The final project is the Shaker clock Christian Becksvoort featured in FW
> #157, in cherry. (actually two of them.) I have very little experience in
> working cherry, being from California. Most of what I have done is in
oak,
> mostly one of the red oak variants that grows out here.
>
> The solid door panel is supposed to be 3/16" thick when done. What I have
> is a spectacular piece of old cherry stock, a full 5/4 thick (S3S), given
> to me by a friend. He's a luthier, and this piece has been in his
'someday
> stash' for fifteen years or more. In other words, if I screw this up,
> there is no more.
>
> Available tools: Jet 16" bandsaw, with a thin kerf veneer cutting blade
> recommended by a College of the Redwoods alumnus at a recent woodclub
> meeting. Similar to the Woodslicer blade Highland Hardware sells,
> according to those who have used both. Fence is the Fastrak, with 7"
resaw
> fence attachment. Most importantly, I have access to a number of friends
> who know how to tune the saw better than I.
>
> 5/4 cherry, in 10+" widths, runs over $10/bf out here, and it wouldn't be
> nearly as well aged.
>
> Yes, I could pay someone to cut the stock. I could pay someone to build
> the @#$%ing clock, too. But I want to learn to do this myself. (Stubborn
> fellow that I am...)
>
> So what wood should I practice on?
>
> Patriarch
Left coast? Alder is the ringer. I'm a pivot post resawer myself, fences
were always just a touch away from proper adjustment or in the way with
protruding parts. You have that jazzy resaw addition, might do as well.
"patriarch" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I need to practice resawing some smallish panel stock (10" wide by 22"
> long). What readily available wood behaves similarly to well-dried cherry
> for practice cutting?
>
> The final project is the Shaker clock Christian Becksvoort featured in FW
> #157, in cherry. (actually two of them.) I have very little experience in
> working cherry, being from California. Most of what I have done is in
oak,
> mostly one of the red oak variants that grows out here.
>
Jummywood!
"patriarch" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Well, not really. Here's the question for all of you woodworkers more
> experienced than I am:
>
> I need to practice resawing some smallish panel stock (10" wide by 22"
> long). What readily available wood behaves similarly to well-dried cherry
> for practice cutting?
>
> The final project is the Shaker clock Christian Becksvoort featured in FW
> #157, in cherry. (actually two of them.) I have very little experience in
> working cherry, being from California. Most of what I have done is in
oak,
> mostly one of the red oak variants that grows out here.
>
> The solid door panel is supposed to be 3/16" thick when done. What I have
> is a spectacular piece of old cherry stock, a full 5/4 thick (S3S), given
> to me by a friend. He's a luthier, and this piece has been in his
'someday
> stash' for fifteen years or more. In other words, if I screw this up,
> there is no more.
>
> Available tools: Jet 16" bandsaw, with a thin kerf veneer cutting blade
> recommended by a College of the Redwoods alumnus at a recent woodclub
> meeting. Similar to the Woodslicer blade Highland Hardware sells,
> according to those who have used both. Fence is the Fastrak, with 7"
resaw
> fence attachment. Most importantly, I have access to a number of friends
> who know how to tune the saw better than I.
>
> 5/4 cherry, in 10+" widths, runs over $10/bf out here, and it wouldn't be
> nearly as well aged.
>
> Yes, I could pay someone to cut the stock. I could pay someone to build
> the @#$%ing clock, too. But I want to learn to do this myself. (Stubborn
> fellow that I am...)
>
> So what wood should I practice on?
>
> Patriarch
I would just head for the scrap box and make a few practice cuts on anything
laying around to get an understanding of drift. Doug fir would be a close
bet for cutting characterisics. That said IMO if your not used to resawing
you will find it is more technique than wood characteristic albeit there are
differences, cherry is rather mild on the what can go wrong scale. There is
a reference in an earlier reply to a great article on resawing as well. IIRC
there is a past shopnotes article also. I use a pivot post myself and can't
comment on the Fasttrack addon. May want to practice with and without the
space age spin though. No matter what when you fire up that saw with 10" of
band exposed keep you mind on the business at hand... or you could easily
lose it.
EJ
"patriarch" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Well, not really. Here's the question for all of you woodworkers more
> experienced than I am:
>
> I need to practice resawing some smallish panel stock (10" wide by 22"
> long). What readily available wood behaves similarly to well-dried cherry
> for practice cutting?
>
> The final project is the Shaker clock Christian Becksvoort featured in FW
> #157, in cherry. (actually two of them.) I have very little experience in
> working cherry, being from California. Most of what I have done is in
oak,
> mostly one of the red oak variants that grows out here.
>
> The solid door panel is supposed to be 3/16" thick when done. What I have
> is a spectacular piece of old cherry stock, a full 5/4 thick (S3S), given
> to me by a friend. He's a luthier, and this piece has been in his
'someday
> stash' for fifteen years or more. In other words, if I screw this up,
> there is no more.
>
> Available tools: Jet 16" bandsaw, with a thin kerf veneer cutting blade
> recommended by a College of the Redwoods alumnus at a recent woodclub
> meeting. Similar to the Woodslicer blade Highland Hardware sells,
> according to those who have used both. Fence is the Fastrak, with 7"
resaw
> fence attachment. Most importantly, I have access to a number of friends
> who know how to tune the saw better than I.
>
> 5/4 cherry, in 10+" widths, runs over $10/bf out here, and it wouldn't be
> nearly as well aged.
>
> Yes, I could pay someone to cut the stock. I could pay someone to build
> the @#$%ing clock, too. But I want to learn to do this myself. (Stubborn
> fellow that I am...)
>
> So what wood should I practice on?
>
> Patriarch
I have no idea what type of wood is similar to resawing cherry but I had to
do a similar project today and had used my bandsaw at that level of accuracy
in a while. I went to Home Depot and grabbed some 2 x 12 for out of the
cut-off bins. I think that I paid around $8.00 for two pieces about five
feet long. When I returned home I prepped them to approximately the same
size of my real piece and started resawing them. After a few cuts that I
was really happy with I switched to the cherry and everything went great.
I hope that this helps - Bob McBreen - Yarrow Point, WA
Practice on any hardwood you can find at a low price. I'd probably
use poplar at less than $2 a BF. Cherry is a very nice wood to work
with, but it can burn easily.
On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 02:18:28 GMT, patriarch
<[email protected]> wrote:
>Well, not really. Here's the question for all of you woodworkers more
>experienced than I am:
>
>I need to practice resawing some smallish panel stock (10" wide by 22"
>long). What readily available wood behaves similarly to well-dried cherry
>for practice cutting?
>
>The final project is the Shaker clock Christian Becksvoort featured in FW
>#157, in cherry. (actually two of them.) I have very little experience in
>working cherry, being from California. Most of what I have done is in oak,
>mostly one of the red oak variants that grows out here.
>
>The solid door panel is supposed to be 3/16" thick when done. What I have
>is a spectacular piece of old cherry stock, a full 5/4 thick (S3S), given
>to me by a friend. He's a luthier, and this piece has been in his 'someday
>stash' for fifteen years or more. In other words, if I screw this up,
>there is no more.
>
>Available tools: Jet 16" bandsaw, with a thin kerf veneer cutting blade
>recommended by a College of the Redwoods alumnus at a recent woodclub
>meeting. Similar to the Woodslicer blade Highland Hardware sells,
>according to those who have used both. Fence is the Fastrak, with 7" resaw
>fence attachment. Most importantly, I have access to a number of friends
>who know how to tune the saw better than I.
>
>5/4 cherry, in 10+" widths, runs over $10/bf out here, and it wouldn't be
>nearly as well aged.
>
>Yes, I could pay someone to cut the stock. I could pay someone to build
>the @#$%ing clock, too. But I want to learn to do this myself. (Stubborn
>fellow that I am...)
>
>So what wood should I practice on?
>
>Patriarch
If you have the saw well-tuned, a sharp blade similar to the Woodslicer, and
your resaw fence adjusted for blade lead, I don't think you're going to have
too much trouble sawing that Cherry as clean as a whistle. It's pretty soft as
far as hardwoods go, and very close-grained. You might start off with some
regular yellow pine (a bit softer than Cherry) just to make sure the saw is
cutting accurately, then switch to Yellow Birch to make sure there are no
surprises. Birch is not too far removed from Cherry; it's a bit harder and has
a nice tight grain structure. All in all, Cherry is a pretty easy wood to
tackle on the bandsaw. Good luck!
--
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