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You cannot depend on your eyes when CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUEArticle: Quick Saw Blade Basics Tip: Dry Hands? Watch Out For Your Wood! Recommended books & links: New? *New* and Newer! Marketing your crafts on-line: Lessons From The "You've Got To Be Kidding" Files Quick Saw Blade Basicsby Wendy Maki Saws are designed to cut on either the push stroke or the pull stroke. Japanese saws, in particular, are designed to cut on the pull stroke. The stroke in one direction makes the cut, while the stroke in the opposite direction clears the sawdust out of the cut. ----------- Kerf The saw kerf is the width of cut that a blade makes in a material. The kerf is usually wider than the blade itself because the teeth of most saw blades are *set* (ie. bent) to the right and/or left. The kerf provides clearance for the blade, so the blade won't jam in the cut. Mis-understanding the saw kerf is a common cause of mistakes in cutting
measurements. The width of the kerf of the actual blade used needs to be ----------- Shape of the Saw Teeth Rip teeth are designed for cutting *with* the grain. They chomp into the wood like a chisel to cut it. Crosscut teeth are designed for cutting *across* the grain without tearing. They cut into the wood by scoring the wood first like a knife. There are also other shapes of saw teeth, including combination teeth which both rip and crosscut. ----------- Saw Blade Specifications TPI (Teeth Per Inch) is the number of teeth that fit into one inch of the saw blade, measured from the base of one tooth to the next. PPI (Points Per Inch) is the number of points that fit into one inch of the saw blade, measured from point to point. There is always one more point per inch than there are teeth. ----------- As a rule of thumb, the larger the teeth, the faster (and coarser) the cut; the smaller the teeth, the finer the cut, but slower. Wet, resinous, or green woods require larger teeth, with good spaces between the teeth. Otherwise, the sawdust will clog up the blade and the kerf. Choose saws and/or blades, as indicated by the manufacturer, according to the material to be cut. (eg. thick or thin wood, soft or hard wood, wet or dry wood, plastic, metal, etc.) Tip: Dry Hands? Watch Out For Your Wood!Many of us suffer from dry hands, especially as we settle into the forced-air-heated environments of our workshops in the winter. Worse, wood dust (and paper) can really suck the rest of the moisture right out of our skin. The first impulse is usually to pick up the nearest bottle of hand cream and slather it on as fast as possible. Right? Before you do that, take a closer look at the bottle or tube first. The vast majority of creams contain at least one, if not all, of the following: oil, wax, and silicon. (Of course, the ingredients don't list them that way. They appear as multi-syllabic mystery words that I don't try to remember or pronounce.) Oil, wax, and silicon. These substances will all leave finger-prints on your wood or paper projects. ----------- So, what to do? There are three main choices. Quitting woodworking isn't really a choice, is it? ;-)
Just remember that it isn't just our natural skin oils that can damage a project or its finish, but it's also what we put onto our skin. Recommended books & links: New? *New* and Newer!
Marketing Your Crafts On-line: Lessons From The "You've Got To Be Kidding" FilesBy Wendy Maki "You've got to be kidding" #1 This past month, as new viruses raged across the internet, I received a biz
newsletter on the subject of protecting yourself from them. In it, the writer Many well-meaning people rush into business on the internet, and forget common-sense basics. Who would open a brick-and-mortar store in the *real* world, and then not install locks on the doors? And, yet, there are people who do exactly that online. Little businesses are especially prone to this. However, it's not just little guys that need to be reminded.... In recent news here, a major Canadian
bank was selling its used hard drives, complete with
Whatever can destroy a business off-line can destroy it on-line just as easily... and sometimes even faster...just see #2... ----------- "You've got to be kidding" #2 Recently, I watched as two internet marketers engaged in a virtual slug-fest on public forums. I couldn't help watching, it was fascinating... sort of the way you can't help but look at a traffic accident. There were public temper tantrums, accusations, name-calling, demands, threats, you name it. In short, some very un-business-like behaviour in front of customers, which also offended many business partners. One of the fellows, with a brilliant future, put a future worth many multiples of the disputed amount into jeopardy, simply through bad behavior. Foolish.
And, then... there are those... uhm... *businesses*? online that don't care a fig about reputation... ----------- "You've got to be kidding" #3 No doubt you've received some of those un-asked-for emails that use deceptive subject lines that get you to open them, only to discover yet another pitch for something to improve your, well, I won't say what... Lately, I've been getting ones with *Tech Ticket* in the subject line. Who are they kidding? *Pretending*
to be an important technical support communication. Reputation isn't much of an issue if no one will ever hear from you again... but, if you do have a genuine *business* and a *real* identity...
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