Sawing By Hand

Sawing wood is one of the most basic and necessary DIY skills. So its not surprising that whatever you do – be it cutting intricate shapes or sawing a plank to size – there's a saw to suit the job.

Most of us take wood for granted, but in fact, what saw you should use depends on the job. This also depends on the type of wood you are cutting. In spite of the widespread use of power saws, sawing by hand is often still the only efficient way to cut wood. The choice in handsaws in enormous and with many of them designed for specific cutting jobs, choosing the right ones is an important step towards successful carpentry.

When you use a saw, the cutting edges or teeth score into the wood. The kerf is the width of this cut. The severed wood crumbles into sawdust, and then away from the work piece with the spaces or gullets between the teeth.

Most saws have there teeth bent out from the blade with alternate teeth in opposite directions. This is the set. The set makes it far easier to cut with and stops the saw teeth from clogging with the sawdust. The set also enables you to adjust your cutting line slightly while you work, as it makes the saw cut a little wider than the actual thickness of the blade.

The size of the teeth makes a saw suitable for some jobs and unsuitable for others. Tooth size is a measurement, taken according to how many teeth there are per inch of saw, abbreviated to ppi. The more teeth a saw blade has the finer the cut. Consequently a saw with 16 teeth to the inch has 16ppi will cut finer, though slower, than a saw which has 12ppi.

For most jobs, a straight cut is normally all that is required – for this, you will need a hand or back saw.

There are several kinds of handsaws, but for most general-purpose work, a panel saw will prove the most useful. This gets its name from its traditional job of cutting up panels for wardrobes and cupboard backs, drawer bottoms and so on. A panel saw has a thin, flexible un-backed blade and will cut chipboard, ply, hardboard and any light timber. A panel saw can also be used for joint making, in some circumstanced. The best size for a panel saw is between 560mm and 600mm long and has 10ppi.

Although the traditional shape has scarcely changed for centuries, modern designs incorporate some new ideas. For example, one has a handle which can be used to measure angles of 45 degree's and 90 degree's, with the back of the saw serving as a straight edge.

Backsaws are identified by their steel or brass back. This has two functions: it grips the whole blade along its length to keep is rigid; and provides weight and stability when the saw is in use. The most useful type of backsaw is the tenon saw, used to make small accurate cuts both with and across the grain. For general cuts use 250mm to 300mm tenon saw with 14-16ppi is best.

Both panel and tenon saws are available with wood and plastic handles. The type of handle you choose is really a matter of personal preference. Wood tends to be more comfortable to use over long periods as it absorbs perspiration better, but plastic will almost certainly be cheaper and is less vulnerable to damaged.

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About Johan Nickson

Johan Nickson is an Woodworking Expert at http://www.powertooldirect.co.uk


And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Day Trading Checklist

Here's a bunch of important things you should know about day trading before you start. First off, can you daytrade if you don't have the requisite $25,000 plus? Yes. You can start Day Trading with as little as $750 if you decide to trade using a spreadbetting account rather than a standard broker, allowing you to ignore most day trading regulations about trading frequency. To day trade stocks using a standard brokerage account (8 round trips or more per week) you will typically need more than $25,000 in your account as per Uncle Sam's regulations designed to stop newbies blowing up. You don't necessarily need a 'mega PC' and a direct access account either. The average spread betting firm will give you access to a day trading system that runs happily in the browser of any low end PC on a dial-up internet account. Just remember that the better your initial setup is, the easier you will find it. You will NOT enjoy seeing your internet connection crash just as you try to pull off a perfectly timed exit, so it pays to have alternatives for everything you use in trading. For a list of the best spreadbetting firms, consult www.traders101.com.

Is day trading the most dangerous form of trading? No. The press is full of stories about how dangerous day trading is. This is pure scaremongering by the misinformed, because day trading simply means not holding any position beyond the current trading day; i.e. closing all outstanding positions by the end of the session putting you 100% into cash overnight. In reality, day trading can be one of the SAFEST form of trading, because you are not exposed to unforeseen events that happen out of hours (like the fall of Enron, Tsunamis in the Far East etc) and the accompanying gigantic losses that can happen during the hours when you cannot trade. Many day traders only hold positions for a few minutes - and the less time your cash is in play in the market, the less chance something will go wrong. Anyone claiming to be day trading who holds positions overnight is fooling themselves - remember this.

Build up your day trading skills with training - practise paper trading till it is second nature to you (for more on paper trading, head on over to www.traders101.com)! Day trading is like running any other kind of business. Adequate training, experience, capital and dedication is always required. Over time, you may find that day trading becomes relatively easy, but you will still have to 'put in your time'. Day trading is a full time job - you need to be ready to trade whenever the market shows you a great opportunity. If you have limited time to trade, you should consider swing trading instead of day trading.

Preserve your capital at ALL costs. Limiting your losses when day trading is by far more important than making big profits. Day traders go bankrupt because they lose money, not because they don't make enough of the green. When day trading, set yourself a limit on how much you are prepared to lose on any particular trade, and set your stoploss at that level. NEVER move your stop the wrong way (i.e. if you are long, and price starts to fall, NEVER lower the stop). If the stop is hit, take the containable loss on the chin (rather than a bankroll-busting loss later!). Over time you will get better at placing stops on your trades. Remember that you can make a fortune day trading being right only 30% of the time, as long as you cut the losses on your 70% losers so that the profits on your 30% winners outweighs them. If you reach 50-50, you should be making money, and if you get above 50% winners, well... welcome to the club! It is also wise to set yourself a daily limit - if you lose this much in a day, quit trading till the next session. It really isn't possible to 'force' profits from the market.

You won't learn day trading in a single day. An obvious point, but different people learn at different rates. The only way to jump start the process is (a) find a mentor (a successful trader who will ride shotgun for you) or (b) use one of the proven methods that have defined rules, (the Camarilla Equations from surefirething.com springs to mind). Even this requires practise though, and you should expect to be still paper trading by the end of a month. Keep at it - day trading is like any skill - nothing worth having ever comes easy.

Knowing when to exit is as hard as knowing when to enter. Day trading is an inherently variable business - some days you might make thousands of dollars, some days you might lose a lot of money. The one thing you WON'T do is make consistent amounts of money day trading every day - markets just aren't like that. If you learn to day trade in a style that lets you run your winners, and chop your losers ruthlessly, you WILL succeed at it, and may even become wealthy.

Day trading doesn't mean trading every day. If you don't feel like trading, then don't trade. If you try to force it, you will most likely lose money. And too many losing days may start to give you a complex about it until you eventually become too scared to 'pull the trigger' and initiate a trade!. Trading should be good fun, and exciting too, and if you want to day trade for a living, not only must you make good money, but you must enjoy it as well! For the full text of this article and the next in the series, 'Day Trading Basics', consult http://www.traders101.com

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About Trader Jack

Trader Jack writes for the Traders Initiative Free site for new traders, www.traders101.com.