C-T nailed it above. A little bit of cut area makes the path of least resistance the path wherever the kerf is, but you can't be too lazy with the kerf and saw setup or you will wander outside of the kerf.

I do a fair amount of resawing, but no kerf at this point, just mark a board on both sides and learn to steer the saw. Make the saw aggressive so that it does a lot of work on each stroke, and by the time you've cut a few inches, you'll have the urge to stop for a second and check the opposite side. Small adjustments all the time, never big ones. Nobody jerks the steering wheel of a boat and goes straight immediately after, and the saw will do the same.

This is also a good lesson for hand tool woodworking as if you're going to do a lot of work by hand, it's really more about efficiency and doing work at a brisk walk slightly raised heart rate pace. If you try to do the marathon with no breaks thing, you won't last long. You don't want to feel lactic acid - you just want to feel resistance and the feel of efficiency with the tools.

When I have something I can't do sustainably, I settle on a count. For example, I have no mill, so if I'm making a stanley plane iron, I drill and file out the center slot. You could do this all in 10 minutes of straight filing, but you'd regret it and your hands would do. If, instead, you count to 25 filing and then release pressure, count to ten and then start over, you can pretty much do it indefinitely and the 10 count gives you a chance to observe things. If you get to the point that you're not recovering, then perhaps you do 25 and 15. Heavy planing and sawing is like this - you stop right before you get that feeling of building fatigue. It seems counterintuitive.

You can become so good with this do, observe, do, routine that you'll be more accurate than an extra kerf width would be and you'll expect it. Cutting the kerfs takes time and handling of material and it's not much fun.



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When I did cut kerfs, though, I did it with a cut down rip saw that I also removed every other tooth from and then filed the teeth left deep so that I'd have a very deep gullet. It's still a problem with clogging once a large fraction of the gullet depth is engaged. It's just not ever going to be any different - the dust won't magically fly out and with a sharp kerfing saw, you'll fill the gullets fast.