Everything you need to use your handsaws! There is no woodworking tool that's more satisfying, quick, and precise to use as a handsaw. This tool can process timber in its rough state, bring boards up to a glimmering smoothness, cut rabbets, dados, grooves and other joints, and trim wood with a precision that has yet to be matched by power tools. Yet many woodworkers--both beginners and professionals--are intimidated by choosing the right tool, sharpening its cutter and putting it to use. Handsaw Basics contains everything you need to choose the right tool for your budget and projects, take it out of the box, sharpen it, and use it successfully. The chapters in this book have been compiled from more than 10 years of the author's writing on the subject of handsaws in magazines, trade journals, and blogs.

In a woodworking world replete with power tools, many woodworkers--both beginner and professional alike--are skeptical of or intimidated by handsaws. Yet, once put to use and mastered, the simple power of these humble hand tools can both awe and inspire. A handsaw is woodworking in it's most pure and minimal form. If you can see and follow a line--any line--you can cut the line. There's no need for crazy setups or jigs; just grab the right saw and start cutting--any angle, any shape. Complex joinery becomes no more than a series of lines to cut on your stock. Compiled from more than a decade's worth of Popular Woodworking material, The Essential Handsaw Book provides all the information a woodworker needs to choose the right saw, use it successfully, and keep it razor sharp for years to come. In the end, using a handsaw to stay on the straight and narrow when tracking any line will become a successful and satisfying endeavor.

Once you master the use of handsaws, you'll be awed by the simple power of this humble tool. If you can see and follow a line - any line - you can cut the line. There's no need for crazy setups or jigs; just grab the right saw and start cutting - any angle, any shape. Complex joinery becomes no more than a series of lines to cut on your stock. Yet many woodworkers - both beginners and professionals - are intimidated by handsaws. Handsaw Essentials - compiled from more than a decade's worth of blog entries and magazine articles - will change that. Christopher Schwarz and the editors and contributors to Popular Woodworking help you choose the right saw for your budget and project, use it successfully and keep it cutting like new.

Harold H. "Dynamite" Payson is a professional boatbuilder who specializes in light plywood construction, though in the past he build traditional plank-on-frame craft. Most of his boats-among them the famed Gloucester Light Dory and the Instant Boat series-are from the board of Philip C. Bolger. Many of the prototypes of Bolger's small boats have been built by Payson as part of their continuing association. Dynamite is a retired lobster fisherman, a saw sharpener, and the proprietor of H.H.Payson & Co., which offers boatbuilding plans for sale to the average boatbuilder. He is the author of Instant Boats, How to Build the Gloucester Light Dory, Go Build Your Own Boat!, Build the New Instant Boats, and a number of magazine articles. He lives and works in South Thomaston, Maine.

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