Thread: How do I avoid break on the edge of timber?

Hi Jim,

It would be good to know how you are cutting the wood. With a hand saw, Mitre saw or table saw. Knowing will help diagnose the problem. One thing that might help is taping over the line of cut before you cut. This may help stop the tear out.
Also, you may want to check to see if you have a sharp blade!

Regards,

Rob

In no particular order:

1) Cut roughly (3mm) to size, finish to size with a trimming cut from a router.
2) Back up the cut with a piece of scrap timber.
3) Score (hard) the reverse of the cut mark with a sharp knife, or make a shallow cut.
4) Cut so the inside of the miter is the 'breakout' edge, if you are lining the inside of the box.
5) If manual sawing, switch to a finer saw, such as one of the fine tooth japanese pull saws.

You want a 'First class cut' saw cut. Use a striking knife (single bevel marking knife) to cut along a metal straight edge at the desired line. Repeat a few times, carefully. Then use a sharp chisel to make a shallow 'V' on the waste side up to the knife line. Do this all around the piece to be cut - top, edges, back. If you can't get the lines to meet up you need more practice/are in trouble.

Use a sharp hand saw and set the blade down in the 'V' and saw away. The knife cut will stop the splintering (spelching) and the 'V' groove made with the chisel gives the saw blade somewhere to start without the risk of being on the wrong side of the cut line. You can see the angle you are cutting by looking at the relection of the wood on the saw plate.

Roy Underhill and Christopher Schwarz have both put out video's on this. I think Chris Schwarz short videos can be viewed for free at the Popular Woodworking site on his blog there (but you will have to do a search, they were made some time ago).

The knife cut method can be made to work with power saws, it is just a bit less certain to suceed.