Thread: Kerfing plane

If you have a Plow, use that instead with a custom made blade. Grind down a 3mm or 1/8" to 2mm, and give it a 35 degree bevel. I think that this will be more accurate and easier to use than a saw blade.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Originally Posted by taz01

Hi all.

I'm trying to avoid stumbling down the toolmaking path so I'm thinking of lazy options for a kerfing plane using tools I already have.

I'm wondering if there is an aftermaket kerfing saw blade that can be inserted into a veritas plow plane, pinched between the skate and the wide blade holder.

If not, is there any reason why this couldn't work that I might have missed?

Making just the saw blade would be simpler than building the whole tool.

Regards,

Adam

so, you're going to find a bunch of things that don't work very well if going down this route, and then potentially find that you don't need the kerfing plane.

I cut down a rip saw some time ago now to use to create the kerf, and took out every other tooth so that it would be very coarse toothed. In the end, it's more trouble to kerf a board than it is to saw it to the line - and definitely takes more time.

The only thing I could think of where it would be worth having is if it's hard for you to see the line or it strains your eyes.

The trouble is this - for the kerf to be effective, especially on a wider cut, it needs to have some depth and then also not be a whole lot wider than the blade/set on your resawing saw. If the kerf is much wider than the cut, the blade, will be able to get some steam on misdirection or turning in the cut before it meets the kerf side, and it'll cut right through it, and even if it doesn't, you'll have a wandering cut and you will grow to have a distaste for that pretty quickly as you'll find something that you want to cut into three and can't because you're stuck taking much more than the saw blade's width.

to make a narrow deep cut, you need some set in whatever tool you use - A narrow plow blade won't have that, and you'll be fighting it binding and grain direction on one side of the board most likely, and it'll be slow cutting. something like I made, which was essentially a 2 tooth per inch saw with a bunch of length cut off of the end will work OK (but it's still slower and somewhat aggravating to use), but the gullets will fill and it will push shavings deep in the cut tight in front of the blade, and those become another issue to deal with. Once you're to some fraction of the gullet depth on the cut, a kerfing saw no longer ejects anything.

Point being, if you're out to resaw more than a couple of things, I think you soon won't want the tool because following the line becomes very easy if you have a setup where you can saw from both sides with a hand saw (not needed with a frame saw - you just walk around and check the back side of the cut and adjust). So I wouldn't bury too much in experimenting with tools and I certainly wouldn't spend the money to buy one that's already made.

Adam, I agree with DW that a kerfing plane sounds like a good idea, but the reality may well be as he predicts. However, that is just conjecture, I have never used a kerfing plane - thought about making myself one a couple of times but the thought went away pretty quickly & I have never gotten the round tuit. I can absolutely confirm that a narrow blade (~1 inch wide) in my frame saw goes all over the shop in a pre-kerf wider than it cuts.

I have been intending to get a wider blade for my frame saw, but it's non-urgent because I have far more success cutting straight with my Disston 3-5tpi ripsaw. I have a beaut little thin-kerf saw blade (Japanese) for my tablesaw which matches the kerf of the Disston very well, so if I reckon I need to pre-kerf, the longest job is changing the blade on the tablesaw. This is "impure" hand-tool work, I admit, but gee, it's a whole lot quicker than any kerfing plane!

Mostly, I don't pre-kerf, my saw tracks very well and usually keeps to the line both front & back, & I turn the board frequebtly just to be sure, but if I'm re-sawing something precious and can't afford to have to plane much to clean up the saw cut faces, then pre-kerfing takes some of the angst out of it...

Just my thoughts..
Cheers,