Why should you saw across the grain when using a bench hook?
Why should you saw across the grain
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A bench hook is used for cutting a workpiece – the piece of wood currently being worked on – that can be quite long, but relatively narrow in width and height. | |||
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Workpieces commonly cut whilst they are held in a bench hook include small plank shapes, battens, rails and lengths of dowel, with the grain direction running along the longest dimension. | |||
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Most bench hooks are relatively small – typically around 250mm (about 10 inches) long by 150mm (about 6 inches) wide – and are positioned flat on the workbench when in use.
These factors mean that a bench hook is impractical for providing support when sawing along the grain of most pieces of wood. |
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Manual cutting along the grain – known as ‘rip-sawing’ or just ‘ripping’ – is done with a rip saw made especially for this purpose.
The workpiece can be placed on a bench made especially for rip-sawing work, like this one, which has a gap running the full length of the bench. The gap allows the saw to pass freely along the length of the workpiece without damaging the bench. |
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A bench hook can be used for cross-cutting quite long workpieces.
Some people even use two bench hooks to accommodate longer pieces. |
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