Rip

Even when you pay a lot for good wood it still has a curve in it. Since I can't feed it through a table saw or a jointer to square it up I had to do it the old fashioned way. Actually I have no idea what the old fashioned way is but I bet it involved a lot of time with a dull hand tool and some cursing. I used a 100" saw guide and an 18 tooth rip blade on my circular saw. I have to mention that this Skil saw has been the best $5 my Mom ever spent on me (garage sale deal.) 18 teeth don't make a very neat cut, but if the blade had any more it would have taken hours to finish.

Anyway, once you know the offset between the blade and the edge of the saw's base all you do is line it up. I used a chalk line to figure out how much I would have to take off. On the 16' board I lost 1 1/4"! I should take that part back and get a refund. You can see the two triangle pieces that were cut off of each end in the picture below. In the middle the saw took off less than a blade's width (called a kerf) or about 1/16". Just enough to cut the rough off. The guide is only 100", which is not enough to cover the length of a 16' board. I have to stop and move the guide half way through the cut. I thought this would give me a lot of headaches but it turned out to be easier than I thought.

A rip cut also generates a colossal amount of sawdust. The pile I swept up must have been about $10 worth of wood. Now that these pieces are straight on one side I can use a table saw to rip the rest of the widths that I need. This piece will eventually be the chines and sheers that run the length of the boat. I also squared a 13' piece that will be the battens along the bottom of the hull.