Do not get into the habit of sawing a little way outside of the line and then trimming off the superfluous wood with your knife or a chisel. That is not a good way to learn to saw by a line. Try your best to make the cut where it should be (even if you do make mistakes for a good while) and thus get into the habit of doing it right without having to rely on any other tool than the saw.
Many pieces of wood can better be screwed in the vise for sawing instead of being laid on the horses, and this position is often preferable. In this case you grasp the wood with the left hand and use the saw as already described. (See Sharpening).
Saw-Filing.—See Sharpening.
Sawing.—See Saw.
Saw-Set.—Various contrivances can be bought for setting saw teeth. When you get to the point of needing one you can easily find a variety from which to select.
Scraper.—The scraper is made of saw-blade steel (frequently from an old saw) and may be of any shape or size to suit the work required of it. A common form for scraping flat surfaces is rectangular like a postal-card, and a good size is from 2" × 4" to 3" × 5".
A piece of glass makes a good scraper for almost every purpose except where a flat, true surface is required. It is good to smooth the handle of a paddle, for instance, but not good for scraping the top of a nice table. For many rounded surfaces glass is fully as good as a steel scraper, but for general use the latter is much better. The following directions may be of use when you wish to break glass to use for a scraper: "Take the back of a knife, or the smooth, straight edge of any piece of iron fixed with tolerable firmness for a moment, then, taking the piece of glass in both hands, rest its edge midway between them on the edge of the iron; let the upper edge of the glass lean from you, and push it gently along the iron, so as slightly to indent the edge of the glass; then, reversing its position so as to make it lean towards you, draw it smartly along the iron, and you will find it separated by a clean fracture directly across, forming a line more or less curved, and leaving one edge of the glass much sharper than the other. By a little practice, and by pressing a little more with one hand than the other, almost any curvature that the work to be done may require may be achieved" (Lord and Baines, Shifts and Expedients of Camp Life).
The edge of the scraper is turned over so as to form a sort of hooked edge or angle (Fig. 661), which when pushed over the surface scrapes off thin shavings. To smooth a flat surface the scraper can be held with both hands, between the fingers and thumb (Fig. 662), and pushed along in the direction towards which it is inclined. Sometimes one end of the scraper is held between the thumb and fingers of the left hand and the palm of the right hand applied below to push the tool along. As a rule scrape with the grain, and it is often advantageous to hold the scraper obliquely to the grain when pushing it forward. In case of some crooked and twisted grain you will find it best to scrape in any and in all directions.
Fig. 661.