Deo Myeongjang Woodworking Hobby Class Day 1 - Sawing Practice, Principles of Straight Cuts

After taking the woodworking class last time, I signed up for the hobby class at Deo Myeongjang run by Master Craftsman Kim Jang-hoe.

Originally I was supposed to go once a week and take a 2–3 hour class, but since it’s far for me, I decided to go less often and stay longer each time.

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It took 1 hour to drive there from Nowon and 1 hour 30 minutes to get back.

I was told that for about the first two sessions, I would need to learn how to handle the basic tools.

Since today was the first day, we started with how to use a saw.

We were to saw the wood according to the drawing below.

The stock we used was 750mm square lumber.

First, we scored knife lines 15mm in from each side along the long face of the stock.

Because of the grain, even scoring the knife lines wasn’t all that easy.

Leaving 50mm at each end, we marked dots every 10mm on the inside and drew lines.

On one side we cut perpendicular to the grain, and on the other we used a sliding bevel gauge to cut at an angle.

And then came the long-awaited sawing time.

At first, when I started sawing, I held the front part of the saw.

Because of that, the saw wouldn’t go straight down vertically and my cuts were all crooked.

The master said you should hold the very end of the handle, relax your wrist, and move the saw back and forth as much as possible.

Just as he said, when I relaxed my arm and wrist and simply moved it back and forth, the saw went down vertically quite well.

This is how it’s supposed to be:

When you hold the saw farther back, the grip point becomes a kind of fulcrum of a lever.

From this position, if you only move the saw back and forth, the weight of the saw naturally makes it cut in the direction of gravity.

That’s why the saw can track in a vertical line.

Here, you just rest your index finger on top of the handle and apply a light downward pressure.

Like this, it took about 2 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon to finish the sawing.

Still, I really did learn how to make a proper vertical cut.

Interestingly, when I sawed like this, the wood warped this way and that.

From a distance it looks like I did a pretty good job, but…

Up close, it’s a tragedy.

Diagonal cuts, maybe because of the grain, were honestly really difficult.

Even so, I loved having a full 5 hours where I could focus entirely on sawing.

I want to go again next time and learn another skill.