Cutting thin Plywood with a knife.

[Not your average framer]

I have seen thin plywood being cut with a knife across the grain of the outer layers. I don't think that this works when the line of cut is starting to get too close to the line of the grain of the wood, but does anyone know how far you can deviate from 90 degrees from the grain direction before cutting with a knife becomes problematic. I have a large piece of thin plywood, which I want to re-purpose and reuse, it is not going to be possible to handle and cut on my band saw. It just too big for me to adequately control while cutting using the band saw.

Thanks,
Mark.

[prospero]

Get a Japanese pull-saw Mark. It will cut it very cleanly, almost as if it were a knife.

Watch your fingers.

[Not your average framer]

Thanks Peter,

I might do that. I have a scroll saw which is often a bit time consuming, but it has some blades with a small section of reverse teeth and it cuts on both strokes, so it does a perfect cut. I am thinking of cutting a larger piece of ply wood down to a more managable size quickly and easily with something like a knife first and then using the band saw, or maybe the scroll saw afer wards. The idea has not yet been fully worked out yet, so still a bit of figuring out still to do, at this stage.

[fusionframer]

Agree with Prospero that Japanese pull saws are excellent. I wouldn't recommend a cheap one though, they are pretty blunt. Gyokucho is a good brand. I have different ones but would recommend a Ryoba as a starter. This is one i have and know is excellent.

https://www.workshopheaven.com/gyokucho ... FCEALw_wcB

Having said that, if you have a table saw, i would run it through that.

Nick

[Not your average framer]

Thanks Nick,

I don't have help on hand and I need to reduce larger pieces down to a size that I can manage myself. My present pieces of plywood is not a usable size for just me to manage on my table saw. If it was smaller then perhaps yes! Getting a clean cut on my table saw at strange angles across the grain is not necessarily producing the best cut either.

[Not your average framer]

I have some left overs and scraps of mouldings, which plan to use to make stacked moulding ready made frames. The inside mouldind frame is principally there to give a big enough face to fix a swivelling small piece of plywood, with is pivoted on a wood screw and can be rotated into position to make the frame able to stand uo on a flat surface. I just thought that I would explain what this is all about. I expect to be able to charge a necessary extra amount to cover the fact that it's a stacked moulding frame.