What I saw

Larry was nice enough to host a shop meet at his shop and provide refreshments.  Larry has recently began to study some of the old traditional methods of woodworking, including hand tools and presented us with a brief demonstration of the use of hand saws.

He had two saws to demonstrate, one cut right away and the other fought all the way through the board.  No one could offer a reason for the difference, and both saws were available for inspection, with the thought that the sharpening method made all the difference, as both saws were sharp, but something was different.

There was interest in what Larry calls his favorite push stick, as it is a “spanner” that goes across the width of the rip fence on his table saw.  Made entirely out of scrap wood, this style spanner keeps his finger on the other side of the rip fence from the blade.  The small notch on the blade side provides the push and the two push block sides keep the movement parallel to the rip fence.

 

 Sketchup model of Larry’s favorite push stick.

 

Contents of this post and original photographs provided by Andrew DiLorenzo.