A Phenomenal Amount of Work to End up With a Rectangle

Published 2026-07-26

Rough sawn white oak

Milling by hand is time consuming, but satisfying. You get to practice a lot of skills at the same time.

After about 3-4 minutes trying to cut through this with a cheap Japanese pull saw, I decided it was worth the 20 minute drive to use a table saw.

Back at home, the hand planing continued

And continued

Glue.

More planing of the now glued pieces

More glue. More clamps.

Sawing it into square.

About here, while trying to push a 5 1/2 through white oak endgrain, I realize why nobody makes cutting boards with hand tools.

How long did it take to get here? An hour? Two? Twelve?

All to end up with a rectangle.

A splotchy uneven rectangle.