Joinery Notebook

Here is a short episode about resawing boards into thinner boards. In this case I tried my hand at a 3/4" x 14" x 24" piece of reclaimed Port Orford cedar.  The saw was a 300mm rip kataba. Turns out I could have used a larger one.

This project was straightforward once the resawing of a 14" wide piece of Port Orford cedar with a hand saw (300mm rip kataba) was out of the way. The wood came out of a California Victorian house where it was formerly shelving. The shelves were 1" x 16" x 6' and made of a mix of redwood and POC - all clear, not glued up. Worth taking the time to resaw with care. Note the two tones - the darker face was near the original surface, lighter color is the interior of the board. Port Orford cedar darkens with age.

This is a bit of a departure from my usual project-driven posts but maybe it will help somebody debating a tool purchase, plus there are not many reviews out there that I could find. Mitsukawa Juntaro is a third generation sawmaker in Japan who creates a wide range of saw types. His saws span from machine sharpened semi-production up to traditionally forged, sharpened, and tuned works of blacksmithing art. This set is handmade (at least partly) but I do not know exact details. Usually this is a set of 5 saws, but the little shop in rural Japan I went to only had these 4: Flush trim, rip, crosscut, and hybrid (crosscut with raker teeth). Price for the set of 5 is approx $250 and you can get them at Hidatool.com and elsewhere.