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Before I moved from NY to NC I had a buddy with a 18" bandsaw, mine is a 12". He did any resawing I needed over 6".. It is too far to commute and I don't want to buy another bandsaw. I am starting an archtop build and have some 2.75" thick spruce to resaw. I don't mind hand tools, ok I'd rather use them, but would a good ripping hand saw handle this job well. I only have good crosscut saws but could get a good rip saw if it will work. How about with maple? Any ideas?

Normally I wouldn`t admit to this, but it looks like you`re in the same situation I was at one point. I used a table saw to resaw as deep as the saw would go on both edges and finished up the cut with a sawz-all (reciprocating saw) with a bayonet blade. I lost quite a bit of wood to the blade and thickness sander because the cuts were so rough. Thankfully, it wasn`t an expensive venture, so I did OK overall.
My advice would be to check around in the area and see if there isn`t someone, either private or business to resaw it for you. It`s well worth the time , trouble, and wait. Lord knows I wouldn`t try the way I did again!

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Hi Mike,

I saw a LOT of spruce, that's my business. If you are sawing Engelmann spruce you try Coe's method, I blew out a gear in my dewalt recip once trying to that with a cedar burl, but it was knarly. Anyway, Engelmann is quite soft and cuts easy, if it is Sitka or Sitka hybrids, like the Lutz Spruce I predominantly cut, you may have a tougher time. These spruces have a very long fibre, that is what gives them their high strength to weight ratio, and that is also what makes it amongst the toughest wood I have cut. Having said that, with patience you can hand saw through a billet with a GOOD, SHARP, WELL SETUP hand saw. Just make sure you have decent set and don't worry about how long it takes, just remember each stroke of the saw is removing wood, if you see sawdust you are making progress.

Good Luck with it!

<EDIT>
I want add one more thing, if your billet is from a piece with no runout and splits nice and straight you could hand split your tops out. If you choose to go this route just make sure that work in halves. Meaning that if you have a four inch billet, split to 2 inches and then 1 inch and so on. This helps to make sure that your billet continues to split straight.

ShaneShane Neifer38763.0904861111

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Canada

I was thinking about starting out with the table saw and following up with something else, but not sure what. Loss of wood is not such a big issue with the archtop, you whittle so much of it away anyhow, but it does seem like a waste. My wood is so thick I can afford to loose some. I may try it with a rip saw so I only loose 1/8th" from the table saw. There is a woodworking show this weekend here in Charlotte, I'll see what options I can learn there.

Coe and Shane, you're not alone, i did it too with my@#$@$purple heart and almost jammed my TS. Now, i would probably call and pay a guy with a portable bandsaw mill if no one else around had resaw capacity on a regular bandsaw.