explore nuances of technique.<\/strong><\/p>\nLaying the saw teeth on the wood and pushing without any guidance is generally too unreliable. So the left (free) hand is set on the wood and a finger, usually the thumb, contacts the saw plate above the toothline to provide stabilization.<\/strong><\/p>\nThis can be done with the thumb<\/strong> alone, but it is more stable when the side of the index finger<\/strong> is placed against the pad of the thumb while the hand rests on the work piece. However, the thumb pad tip is squishy<\/strong>, so it works better if it is also\u00a0firmed<\/strong> by pressure from the index finger.<\/p>\nEven better<\/strong> is to angle the thumb a bit to the left so as to engage the hard\u00a0thumbnail<\/strong>\u00a0tip against the saw plate. The index finger acts to not only stabilize the set up but to help bring the saw teeth to the proper place<\/strong> to start the cut and fine tune the placement.<\/p>\nI find that using the thumb knuckle<\/strong> is less controllable since it is not on the most distal portion of the finger.<\/p>\nBelow,<\/strong> with this angle of the thumb, only the soft tip will contact the saw plate.<\/p>\n![\"IMG_1173_edited-2\"](\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/IMG_1173_edited-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Below,<\/strong> I’ve re-angled my thumb so the nail will contact the saw plate. This will vary depending on the angle of the cut, sight line considerations, wrist flexibility, and even the length of the nail.\u00a0In some situations, it may be too awkward or impossible.<\/p>\n![\"IMG_1174_edited-2\"](\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/IMG_1174_edited-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Is this getting too punctilious, picky, or perhaps persnickety?<\/strong> I don’t think so. These are the bits of technique that are not mentioned in books<\/strong> but can make a real difference in work. Though these finger configurations work for me, the key point is to work out the details to suit your hands and the circumstances of the task<\/strong>\u00a0to achieve the control and ease<\/em><\/strong> that is part of good craftsmanship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Come on, woodworking isn’t really so hard to do. Just have all your stock flat, straight, and square, cut to the layout line, and never make a mental error. Everything will go just fine. Just kidding. But starting saw cuts accurately does help to make woodworking, especially joinery, go much better. “Well begun is half […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-techniques"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2789"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2795,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2789\/revisions\/2795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"IMG_1172_edited-2\"](\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/IMG_1172_edited-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n