Like aldav sez, you really have to put a flat on any round object you want to rip on he BS - the risk of it rolling & catching (especially with coarse teeth) is a bit much even for someone as cavalier as myself. I occasionally ignore that sound advice for a small piece that looks straight & not likey to roll, but often as not I end up with a spiral cut that takes more effort to straighten than chopping a quick flat with a hatchet &/or drawknife would've taken. A flat on the down side & some sort of straight line to follow makes all the difference, you should get a face on a short billet like yours that you could clean up with a jack plane in short order.
I never use a fence with my BS, I can't even remember where I've "stored" it, because I mostly use my BS for rough breaking-down or cutting curves. Occasionally I do use it for re-sawing, but I find it quicker (than finding & setting up the fence) to run a kerf around the top & bottom of the board with a thin-kerf blade & the BS blade will follow that very reliably (unless it happens to be the very last board of something very precious, in which case the blade will invariably wander! :~ ). I'm far happier using hand tools too, but there are some jobs brute force just makes a lot easier....
:U
Cheers,