Re: Ever bought a tool that makes you feel un-wort
ThomD
>I don't think better saws are more fragile, they can be almost paper thin, but the "paper" is pretty darn tough, and it is cutting away less wood. I haven't used the quality you have though.
1) You need to have a good stroke, but if you look at a variety of Japanese masters on tape or in person, they don't all seem to move the same parts the same way. So some latitude is possible. Watch what moves and waht stays fixed. Work on a stacne that if you close your eyesand then open them a second or so later, still has you right over the line.
2) Practice with other saws. By practice I don't mean you use them for your next project rather than a router jig. I mean get some wood and practice some sawing. I don't know if you have any familiarity with strip canoes, but even though I had at the time in question 3 planers, and an abrasive planer in my shop, I routinely hand plane all the cedar for boats, it's some of the best wood, grain wise, guitars aside, that I come across, and I find it from home depot, to fencing suppliers. It's good exercise, and it's good practice.
When you are working on skills think driving range. You go to the range to work on your swing, you go to the course to play the game. As master archer Bob Ragsdale says, always decide whether you are practicing or shooting for a score. But in woodworking it often seems that few people really go to the "driving range", they try stuff out on stuff that maters like projects. Practice and using are not the same thing. For instance, it is amazing how many sports from x-country skiing to shooting use some form or eyes closed practice. You do the thing with the eyes closed, in a safe situation so you can actually feel your body, not let the eyes take over.
Some people will joke about Zen, but Zen for the Japanese was preparation for a warrior mindset, and the similar mental, practice,and hand eye techniques are used by top golfers, top army marksmanship training units, top darts player, whatever.
3) Warm up. I think the last pro grade load of woodworking I did was summer 06. I just haven't had the time to do large doses this year. Either way, if I haven't been doing it for a few days, particularly with sawing (all saws), if I am going todo something meaningful, I will warm up by ripping some lines in a board. What I want is for the saw to be square and just drop right down. If I am demonstrating I'm trying to burn off nerves, since I don't do that often. I'm also working on alignment. If I close my eye for a few moments, and re-open them is the saw still parallel in the cut, if not I adjust my feet. I do not use lines, the whole idea is to get the eyes, body, arm, and saw, just cutting straight and square.
If you have ever seen a raw beginner cyclist riding down the road he goes back and forth trying to keep balanced, in sawing terms he is still chasing the line. If you see a very experienced cyclist he probably thinks he was going straight, but they are just wobbling less, they are trying to steer a line, like a woodworker who tries to keep the saw on line by steering it. But some cyclists do train to be on line, either on rollers, or in my case when touring I ride the curbside white line because it rolls better. You are just falling down that line, you can't steer it, you have to align with it. You need to learn to let the saw follow the line. You can steer any saw. You pay big bucks for saws that can hold the line by themselves if you don't get in the way.
4) Aiming. it is called hand eye coordination, but what are you aiming for? Obviously you want the saw to go down the line (whether it is marked or not), but that isn't aiming. When you shoot a gun the bullet goes the same way, pretty much every time, it goes down the line, but how do you get that line on target?
Looking at the road right in front of a car is not how you aim it. You look down the road to where you want to car to be. You have to sort out where you want to put your primary focus, what point will your eyes rest on that governs your process. This gets complicated because you are both aiming and aiming the engine. In a car, you can just aim it, you aren't pedaling, same with a rifle. But with a saw, (bow or putter) you have several things happening, the saw is going places you want to saw to, but it is also going back and forth to effect the cut. What of all this stuff is your aiming point? If you don't have an aiming point you have to be extremely talented to achieve hand eye coordination.
For me, and there is variability here for sure, I acknowledge where the endpoint of the saw cut is, where I am headed. I sometimes look there if that seems to be the problem I need to deal with. But when I am doing high quality work, the line should be a given from the saw and the practice. What I look at is parallelism in blade and the kerf, in my secondary vision I see the target. If the saw is good, and the stroke is grooved, and I know where I am headed, all I need to do is keep a visual reference on the saw in the kerf keep it pumping parallel. It will keep dropping to the target, and I won't ever buckle it since I am watching the parallelism, and I won't saw off line on the back of the board.
Some minor notes:
If a person is new to Japanese saws they should learn where they cut, and at what angles of attack. You don't place them on the wood in the same relative position you would a push saw, because the starting teeth are at opposite ends of the saw. This affects the angles also. This affects workholding. Try to cut with the grain in your primary part, if you have to cut ageist the grain try to have that part of the cut in the waste. Both in crosscuts and rips. I mostly like a fairly light grip.
When it comes to practice, you can do lots, but even a relatively small amount, a few hours done properly, I mean once in your life, can make huge gains. Same with warming up. I do like a 5-10 cuts. If tiger woods was a woodworker he would do 2 hours of warm up, maybe. In many instances you will just be trying to see where the problem is. I have a dart board at the door of my shop. When I come in I throw a few darts. I don't play darts, but I can tell from a few shots whether I am on or off. There are days when I have thrown a 180, and days when I have missed the board... It really helps to know what is going on in the body. I consider myself someone who can manage their performance, not someone who is a deadeye with woodworking tools.
At some point your confidence and ability will come together to the point where this question no longer crosses your mind. And again, that could be a few days or weeks, not necessarily years.
