Steering a saw. No wheel or power steering pump. You got a license for that? Very good James. Thank you young man.

Gosh, this took me back some 50 years to our school woodwork teacher who used to drive stuff like this into your brain. I sure thank old Mr Davies for his patience as his wisdom stuck with me all my life. I do hope your video's inspire the younger generation to learn good woodworking skills like this instead of just reaching for the latest power tool. Thanks for this.

Great instruction James. Thank you. I know I have this problem myself after relying on power tools all these years. The muscle memory has eluded me, but alas, I shall retrain them once more. Thanks again.

Great way to end the day James, watching one of your videos...richard from Normandy, France

I came back to this video the other day when a project called for lots of longer sawing with a panel saw. I used your advise and am so very pleased. After about an hour I had it down perfect and can stay of line for very long rip. Thanks.

Thank you very much for this video. Just what I needed to improve my sawing skills.

Great tips James, thanks for sharing them with us.

I think that's the best explanation on sawing process I ever saw. Very helpful for me. Thank you!

Good tips for typical problems. As all in life, things must be corrected at time

Watched it last night, used it today, and I'll be darned if it wasn't the best handsaw rip I've ever done. Thanks!

James what a great tutorial type video and this saw video gave me a chance to see what I'm doing wrong. I think this will definitely help me with my dovetailing.

Massive help- thanks so much, James!

great information james!! love the channel and the podcast! Big fan!

thanks for sharing James. very instructional.

Thanks for the advice James!

Good stuff. Your advice is right on from my experience.

Thank you again, Mr Wright. Working on my first project over the weekend I was veering quite a bit. It is going to be a saw bench so I am not to worried about minor appearance flaws (ends are still square). 1) you confirmed it is my form; 2) you give me confidence I can get better; 3) until then, I now have some tricks to fix wavering cuts.

Real good info James, it will help when i try this.

Thanks James, very informative.

fantastic advise I have struggled with those exact problems.

Great tips, beautiful saw by the way

Another very helpful video. Thanks.

This is a great help for me. I have a big problem with cutting a straight line. I will keep these tips in mind next time I saw.

just found your channel and i love it

Fantastic tips. I have to remember the "back up" method. I usually have just tried to correct as I go. I have some awkward body mechanics due to an injury so I am learning to compensate. What tells me a lot is seeing myself on video. Another of Shannon's tips, video yourself. I often pick up the handsaw instead of the much easier, and just as accessible mitre saw or table saw. Just for the practice. Besides, it is a lot of fun and one of the most basic of skills. One of the best to keep up on.

Wow I have to try this. I didn't learn this in shop class. Thanks!

Thanks James! I'm not a hand tool guy, but on occasion may need to make a hand cut. Always go off line and become frustrated. You have given me great hope and tools now that I can correct my cuts and with practice improve. thanks so much for this video! Ernie

Hi there from Portugal, Nice :D Obrigado(Thanks)

Great tips gonna save this one for future reference....

Good tips, thanks

I learned to cut by hand a few years ago. I now use the hand saw pretty often. I've never tried the backup method. I just correct as I go. Thanks for the tip

I like your videos. 👍 greetings from Holland.

Good tips.

I love your tutorials. You're really good at explaining and teaching.

Great video! I like the quick-hit technique videos like this! 1 thing that I am thinking about making that might be a good project for you: A plane/chisel storage station. I've seen a bunch where they store the planes vertically on a wall, which seems to save a ton of space. Might be a nice addition to your shop and a cool project to boot!

dude... awesome. i've just gotten into hand tools and have been wondering how to fix this problem. great video

This is fantastic! I'm slowly trying to use hand tools more in my work, the push saw is something that's intimidated me though. Haven't used one since I was a kid and it was bad, haha. This definitely demystifies getting better results. Do these ideas work with pull saws as well? Thanks!

Excellent! Bravo! I thought I was the only one who had figured out these tricks. LOL. There just isn't enough discussion about the details of sawing technique. Hand sawing is an underdeveloped skill among us hand tool users. Yes! Correct immediately with fine corrections. Be alert to the smallest deviation and track back. Steering is very limited before it begins to kick the far side of the blade out of line. Back up, press against the side of the blade and use the teeth on one side as a rasp! It takes time. There's no way around that. You can make significant improvement quite quickly with these tips but the rest takes time on the tools. Thanks.

Nice video

I have s few old Disston's and I found one that always cut to the left. After realizing it was not my technique I ended up buying a saw set and made sure all the teeth were set the same. It fixed the issue and it cuts great now. Just wanted to add that incase someone is struggling with a specific saw. If you have more than one saw verify your technique with them on lines of a scrap board, then turn to a saw set next. Good video.

Great stuff, I'll practice. Any similar tips on keeping the cut square in the other dimension?

Very interesting input!

Good stuff......

Awesome tip on he recovery method fella 💪 gotta get the muscle memory in tow

I constantly have to remind myself that the saw is straight. I say this because I worry about the back side to much and ruin cuts. The front side runs true but the back side is chaos. I focused to much on following the front line and forgot to keep the saw straight. body mechanics that you mentioned helps so much.

nice dear sir!

Great advice as usual. However, I find that using my table saw gives me a straight cut all of the time! :) Steve

Very good information on getting back on track. And it's nice that you mentioned Shannon Rogers, he's real good at that stuff. On a side note, many people start a talk like this by telling people to point their pointer finger forward. You said you weren't going to go into body mechanics, so it's expected that you didn't mention the grip, and it was enough that your grip was clearly shown in the video. Those folks who emphasize having the pointer finger forward rarely mention that the thumb needs to oppose that finger with equal force, whether light, or heavy, or else the finger can push the saw to the side. On another topic; I'm a bit older than you, I mention that because in my lifetime I never heard, or read, anyone refer to a saw blade, as a 'plate' until about 2 years ago when I heard Christopher Schwarz say it. I have a number of books, some are over a hundred years old, they all use saw 'blade'. Frid, Krenov, Jones, Hasluck, Hayword, Underhill, they all use the word 'blade'. Check for yourself, look in all of your books. I have no idea where Schwarz got it from. I'm guessing that he is having a bit of fun with people. He also uses the word chop for vice jaws. I had heard that before, not nearly as frequently as jaw. Schwarz: good guy, very worthwhile to study, just not sure about some of his word choices.

Interesting! because I never go straight :D thanks man!

Thanks for the video enjoyed it Few questions if I may? 1) I notice you go forward first while setting your starting point is this the prefered method 2) I noticed your angle is moving upwards into the saw. Is this just to start and you level off during the cut and move down or maintain level cut? 3) I always struggle to decide where to look while cutting. Do I watch the saw moving down the line on the waste side or just gauge an overall view. Ie do I close one eye to get more accuracy? Hope they make sense 😁

Hey this video should help the 2x6 guy! Good pointers btw.

Is using a straight block of wood for the first inch or so regarded as cheating [sometimes I use even two blocks (clamp one down) in order to keep the blade straight]?

oh, don't forget your steering wheel fluid too!

Chugga chugga chew thru that wood. ;) Nice tips.

For the situation at around 5:50, I use the front quarter of the saw only. There no reason to add more sawplate, which creates a worse situation, and is harder. As I complete the correction, I being using more and more of the wide part of the saw.

where do I get a tooth-setting tool?

Do you have any tips for sawing straight with Japanese saws? I'm ok with western saws, but my cuts with Japanese saws are downright embarrassing.

Thank you Cyborg from africa

I wanted to ask you about cutting with the Japanese saw. As far as I can see, a lot of control that you are demonstrating comes from the fact that you are cutting on the push stroke, so the saw seems to engage the wood on the surface of the plank that is facing you. With a Japanese saw you will cut on the pull stroke, so maybe the action takes place on the other side of the board. Would you agree? If yes, is there anything different in the way that you handle a pull saw?

Do you sharpen your own saws ? And is wood work your full time job ?

I have no problem hand sawing following a line. What i have difficulty with is sawing square. No matter how carefully I do it, I cannot cut squarely. Even with my jigsaw and or my circular saw cutting free-hand my sawing is not square. I'm so frustrated.

Look at the seesaw, did you see what I saw? You wood if you did what I did. I looked.

That saw must be sharp you’re cutting down the Grain fairly easily

A table saw will solve the problem