On Tue, 03 Oct 2006 20:09:46 GMT, "George E. Cawthon"
wrote:

boorite wrote:
nautilus wrote:
A few days ago I bought some cedar from a lumber yard, to finish a
project in which I'm working ok. The stock measures 3 inch of
thickness, 9 inch width, and about 2 meters long. I've two pieces of
this size.. and I need to get some 3x3x2meters "sticks"..
(snip)... so I'm thinking in using a good hand saw (which I
would need to buy).

If I made a cut like that with a hand saw, it would look like
vandalism.

The cheesiest skilsaw I've ever owned could do a long rip better than I
could with any hand saw. I love hand saws for small work though.


You an me both, but I can use a handsaw fairly
well. My dad was a carpenter (also a teacher and
a chemist) and he could saw a straight line, keep
the saw perfectly vertical, and do it quickly.
Never saw (no pun intended) him bend a handsaw
blade even a little. It takes practice to
maintain a stance where you arm is going up and
down without any sideways movement.

The OP needs to get a good rip saw (?8 tooth?).
Just as information, my dad would have ripped that
piece of wood from end to end in about 5 minutes
(assuming western red cedar) and the piece ripped
off would have been square.

Ha! I remember when I was a kid watching my dad rip 1x12 pine boards
with a rip handsaw (10', 16', I don't remember but they weren't
little short boards) and finish with a straighter, more square end
product than I could possibly do with a power circular saw without a
sawboard. A quick swipe with an old wooden coffin plane (which was my
grandfather's and I now own) and those rips were as straight and
smooth as anything that comes off my tablesaw and jointer (yeah, a
combination of him being good at it and me being poor at it). Although
his profession during my lifetime was as an elementary school
principal, he was a carpenter before WWII and on most job sites power
tools were not allowed by unions as the union felt they would
eliminate jobs. You had to have your own tools and learned to use
them and keep them sharp and in good repair.

Dave Hall