half cut ...

Well done Fran. Definite improvement :o)

I don't know if it's already been said, take long slow strokes using most of the blade and hold the saw flatter to the wood rather than perpendicular. This way it'll follow the line better and won't need so much effort.

ive been using a tenant saw on the ivy fran and snapped the blade!!! good news is, it was the last bit of ivy i can reach, hub will have to finish it, im worn out lol..

Your Deffinatley getting better, that stuff is not easy to cut, i take my hat off to you :)

Thanks, TT - using my new saw, which is, or damn well should be, a lot sharper than the old one.

lol Sev, the advice I've had before has mostly been variations on "use the back end of the blade and saw as near vertical as you can"

I'm trying to find good tune to keep me making steady strokes - I need a fairly slow tune cos I'm not a power-saw-er - tried Old Man River once, that's about my sawing speed!

Wow, Youngdd, those are hard to break - well, any saw isn't easy, but they have the reinforcement on the back. I did try using a tenon saw to make the pilot groove, but with wide wood, it has to be at such a shallow angle because of the spine that I need to make sure I keep my free hand well out of the way, in case it skids out, which has happened.

Previous tips I'd read had been to get the shoulder squarely in line with the intentended cut, so that the thrust would come in a straight line, but don't seem to be able to manage that. I just need to work out how far to which side of the line I should stand - or use both hands and saw from the centre, as it were. But then I need to find a way to hold the wood steady that'd let me do that.

Vertical makes it much more difficult to follow a line Fran. Bite the saw into the edge until it's got a notch (only downwards if it's skipping), lower the saw gradually half way to horizontal and start to make a shallow cut along the line while looking under the saw, it'll form a groove inwards a couple of inches whatever amount you can control without the saw leaving the path, really just exposing the wood below the plastic. There's the start of your path. You can - gently, forget thrust - use the saw to cut deeper into this groove by taking it more vertical (not perpendicular) followed by extending the groove some more as before. This takes very little grip strength. A little longer to do but flat board is the most difficult.

thanks, dear! I've got some more sawing to do today - well, I've got some more sawing to do and it'd better be today, as my baby mini-Buddleia arrived yesterday and are still in the packaging, so I need that table up and work--at-able pdq.

so why am I sitting ehre at the PC, I ask myself??

see ya later!

but I'll keep this page onscreen so I can refer back to Sev's tips when it's time to put them into practice.