Thread: Japanese resawing by hand

Yes, if you are Japanese... :D

I'm not sure if these things (can't remember it's Japanese name) are exclusive to Japan, but I've not seen them used elsewhere in Asia. I've travelled around a fair bit in S. E. Asia and always saw frame saws (usually with bamboo frames) being used to break down logs in villages where hand-tool use was obviously still the go:

bamboo frame saw.jpg

The couple of young blokes in that pic were really tearing into that small log & had it reduced to boards in short order...

Cheers,

This saw is called a Maebiki, or "whale back".

They work well and give a laser-line cut, but one apparently needs to a bear to use it

What it comes down to is there are a multitude of methods that were employed around the world pre the industrial age that were developed over hundreds of years for thousands of different processes, and they all worked well. Learn to use the one you have to the best of your ability, and you should be just fine.

However, my first thought watching that was the saw could use being another 300mm in length at least. But I have no idea in reality.

No, it's not better than a frame saw. I have two of those and they are blistering sharp (I reconditioned them), but they are saws designed generally for wet wood. the plates are very wide and they typically have a lot of set. Frame saws and pitsaws are sort of under tension in a cut (a pitsaw is pulled by the man below) and can cut a thinner kerf. I would guess that the kerf with set with my 4 foot frame saw is less than half as wide as the kerf from either of my maebiki.

So, why do I have a maebiki? they're not expensive and I just had to try. they're not expensive in japan, that is. I got them for an average of about $40 each. At some point, I'm hoping to get a clear section of cherry from our neighborhood private woods (it's neighborhood owned, and OK for us to request to take wood from it as the neighborhood association marks trees they would like felled - you fall it, you can have the wood) to cut with the maebiki.

Too, if you have a board standing vertical, the weight of a maebiki bearing on its teeth is *ultra* aggressive and you will fight it a little.

Utlimately, resawing is a job about things being set up properly and then it's just horsepower. The maebiki can't make up for the fact that it removes so much wood volume.

It looks great in the video, though.

Originally Posted by taz01

... Would this work better than a frame saw? ...

Have another look at the quality of the cut surface in the video, Taz. Suspect the sawyer's skill level is also pretty high!

Originally Posted by woodPixel

... They work well and give a laser-line cut, but one apparently needs to a bear to use it

Have another look at the video, WP; none of the sawyers look like they can ties their shoes without bending over, and none have raised a sweat.

the fact that the boards are flat looking and well sawn has to do with the height of the saw and the fact that someone probably started the cut for the attendees at the workshop. when you have a saw with a plate twice as thick as a disston saw, and a foot of height, it's hard to make a wandering cut. Starting the saw can be difficult, though.

As far as the speed and effort, the question above about frame saws is relevant - which is faster? A frame saw is at least twice as fast (at least a 4 foot saw). It's not going to be as cheap as getting a maebiki out of japan and shipping it surface (they're tough, so shipping by boat is no problem). And one has to learn to steer a frame saw - it's not hard, but they can wander unlike a maebiki.

I'm not sure most here would have a practical solution for holding a board firmly enough to use a maebiki, either, and since you need to raise whatever you're resawing periodically, using a gaggle of clamps isn't realistic. BTDT. A full height leg vise works well, especially if you drape drawer liner down one side.

It's possible that each one of those stump slices took well over an hour and the wood appears to be a softwood of some sort.