BEST PRO TIPS
ALIGN YOUR SAW TEETH
When a saw doesn’t want to cut a straight line, the teeth might be to blame. Most saw teeth have a “set,” which is how far the teeth stick out on either side of the blade. When the teeth stick out farther on one side than on the other, the blade will drift in that direction. To correct the problem, very lightly grind down the protruding teeth with a sharpening stone. One stroke will often be enough.
SMOOTH CURVES IN SECONDS
Cutting a curve with a band saw or a jigsaw usually leaves a rough edge. Sandpaper is the typical solution but sometimes makes matters worse. Ralph likes to use a spokeshave to get those edges as flat and smooth as glass. The trick is to cut downhill so the blade is always cutting with the grain.
GO WITH THE GRAIN
When you’re using hand planes and scrapers, it’s important to cut with the grain of the wood. Following the lines of the grain, it’s easy to see which direction to push the tool. Tracing the grain with a pencil can help reveal lines in lighter woods. But watch out! Sometimes a board has many directions of grain run-out. When it does, you’ll just have to come at it from multiple directions.
SHARPEN TOOLS THE SIMPLE WAY
The No. 1 reason some people hate hand tools? They’ve never used one that was properly sharpened. Yes, you can spend a ton on fancy sharpening stones, but you don’t need to. With the Veritas
Mk.II Honing Guide (about $71 at leevalley.com) and wet-or-dry sandpaper from the auto parts store, you can get your tools scary-sharp.
Using spray adhesive, stick wet-or-dry sandpaper to a flat surface like this melamine shelf or a slab of granite. The setup shown goes from 220 to 3,000 grit, plus the yellow honing film ($6 at woodcraft.com), but you can get good results using just 220-, 600- and 1,000-grit paper.