On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:36:19 -0700, the infamous Chasgroh
scrawled the following:

On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:33:41 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

On Mar 19, 11:21*am, John Martin wrote:
On Mar 19, 10:15*am, " wrote:



I'm putting up a split rail fence and am near the end of the project.
I tried to plan the project to use full length rails for the majority
of the fence run but I have about 5 locations where there must be
shortened rails. *The rails come as full 4x4's - they actually measure
4" x 4", and the ends have 2 tapers on each end that form the tenons.
The oddball thing is that the tapers are cut across 2 faces so that
when the tenon sits in the mortise, the rail is situated where you see
2 faces of the rail, as if it's sitting on one corner, and not a face
- it's sort of discernable in the upper left and lower right rails of
this pictu

http://allstarfencedeck.com/yahoo_si...ges/split_rail...

Now, my question is, I need to cut several of these - how to? *I've
tried a chainsaw and it is not very good at making tapered rip cuts.
I've also tried: scrub plane, handsaw, circular saw, recipro saw.
Mostly I'm making long hacked up toothpicks - Ha! *Remember that not
only do they have to be tapered, but the tenons have to be in the same
plane as each other from end to end, in order for the rail to fit
correctly. *Also, the rails are not always straight & mostly aren't.
Wit's end here!

Cheers

Try the chainsaw again, but with the bar parallel to the length of the
rail. *Cutting across endgrain with a chainsaw doesn't work very well
unless you have a special ripping chain. *Cutting parallel (or mostly
so, except for the bevel angle) does work. *You'll find that it may
load up with long shavings, rather than short chips, but you'll just
have to clear them out frequently.

Lacking a chainsaw, an adze would do a good job of it.

John Martin

Why didn't I think of that? I will try this, thanks.

...chainsaws are *very* adaptable devices, when you finish your long
cuts you can modify/touch-up using the saw perpendicular to the cut
you're working on and lightly (heh) letting the blade take off excess
material with little risk...

You can also drill holes in the bar and stick long handles on 'em to
help guide the tip for more precise carving. Be sure to use a guard
(large tsuba) to keep your hand away from the blade if you do that.

--
If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we
shall ere long be surprised to find how little remains that we cannot do.
-- Samuel Butler