Keith’s Note: In a way, think of that initial sighting as the starting position for your body and sight-line. Then as you lay the saw to wood, you’ll almost look “through” the blade during the cut. So you say, how is that possible? Well, remember that your left and right eye will give you some offsetting perspective on the sight-line. This is the three dimensional space that is hard to visualize, but as Craig says, once you have the initial orientation lined up and you begin your cut, the saw will cut straight (with practice). Just keep at it and I think you’ll see success.

Thanks for the great site, and the wonderful videos!

After seeing this and Craig’s demonstrations on cutting dovetails I wouldn’t mind if there was a detailed one about tools for marking the dovetails.

Did you buy the marking gauge or make his own Japanese style gauge? Did he make that tiny square?

Keith Note: Craig’s marking gauge is “shop-made” but very nice. Top drawer like everything Craig does. I’ll have to ask Craig about the square.

It looked like, through the video, that the end of the dovetail cut was only delimited by the line itself and not a secondary line normal to the cutting line?

Keith’s Note: That’s what’s great about this topic. It seems that making a saw cut is easy, and it is at the most basic level. But to get the accuracy that Craig gets consistently, it takes some thoughtful technique. What makes Craig’s approach so interesting is his explanation of how to sight the saw blade with the pencil line.

Would be great to see how to accurately make long rip cuts (resawing) using a handsaw as well!