Expert: Jamie Yocono - 2/11/2005

Question
I just got 250 board feet of rough sawn African hardwood boards that are all thicker than 3".  Some of the boards are as wide as 14" although most are about 6". I will plane them, but prefer to cut them down to 3/4". What is the best method to do this without losing a lot of wood? Most are too think for my band saw and my old craftsman table saw only has an 8" blade....

Answer
Hi John,

This is a pretty involved question (not sure if you realize it) so this answer is pretty long and detailed. I hope it makes sense!

You're very lucky to have gotten all that wood. What you're inquiring about- cutting the boards into thinner planks- is called resawing. Most resawing is usually done with a bandsaw, because the kerf of the blade is so narrow. That results in less wood being wasted during the cutting.  A tablesaw has a kerf of about 1/8", while a bandsaw wastes about 1/16 of an inch per cut.

Most woodshops have a 14" bandsaw, and that won't accommodate a 1" (or larger) resaw blade. So I'm assuming that you're not going to be able to re-saw these boards, even if you did have a bandsaw.

There are a few alternatives, and also- you need to think about the width of these boards. Even though it sounds great to have a board that's 14" wide, as you mentioned, it's impractical to use it in that width. Wood expands and contracts with seasonal humidity changes, and a 14" board will cause you all sorts of problems if you tried to use it all in one piece.

A better solution is to rip it into 2 or 3 roughly equal strips, and when you glue up your panel, you alternate the annual rings of the end grain. That means flip every other board over, so that the rings go up on one board, and down on the next. Most woodworking books are illustrated to show this much better than I can write it, but trust me- a 28" wide coffee table top that's made up of seven 4" wide strips of wood is MUCH more stable than a top made up of two 14" pieces of wood.

So even if you have 14" wide boards, you're still going to want to rip them down to narrower widths.

Now- in your case, that's a good thing. Cutting them down into narrow pieces might allow you to resaw them on your tablesaw. A 10" blade will raise 3" out of the top, so in theory, you can resaw a 6" wide board, cutting from both edges. Just make sure you keep the same edge to the fence for both cuts, in case your cut isn't exactly centered.

I'm not sure how high an 8" blade will be at it's maximum height. Whatever that dimension is, multiply it by two and you'll know how wide of a board you can resaw on your tablesaw.

Better yet- if your tablesaw can accommodate a 10" blade, you'd be wise to go and buy a 10" rip blade, which will allow you to cut 6" boards, with less heat buildup in the blade. Remember, you're going to lose 1/8" per cut, so if it were me, I would cut those 3" thick boards into 3 pieces that were 7/8" thick. By the time you plane them smooth, you'll be around 3/4" thick.

One last thing- look at your 3" boards. They're dry on the outside, but inside, there is a higher moisture content. When you resaw them, you're radically changing the moisture structure of the board. It's going to be more moist on one side (the side that was inside) and dryer on the other. You will want to stack these boards up with stickers (sticks in between them for ventilation) and let them dry a bit. Stack them high, if you can, so the weight of them keeps them as flat as possible. Some of these boards will cup and some will warp. So it's wise to cut them thicker than needed, so that you can machine out the imperfections later.

Oh- I just remembered another thing- most bandsaws have riser block kits you can buy to accommodate wider board resawing. If you have a bandsaw, you might want to check and see if they have a riser kit available. I think you can resaw about a 8" board with that expanded capacity. Oh- something  I've done in the past is start my two cuts on the tablesaw, cutting the maximum that I can with the blade all the way up. You may have to make these cuts in increments, as a 3" deep cut in something hard like Maple will probably be too hard on your blade. So make a few passes until you get to the maximum height.  Then- finish the resawing in your bandsaw. A 1/2" blade will do.  Since bandsaw blade are notorious for wavering, the tablesaw cuts will help guide the blade and will make it an easier cut to accomplish.

I probably gave you too much to think about!

Good luck, I hope this helps. Feel free to write back with any other questions you might have after reading this.

Jamie Yocono
Wood It Is! Custom Cabinetry
Las Vegas, NV