Discovering a New Resawing Technique

The wings, arms, and horns on this baby dragon were resawn from thicker wood on my Shopsmith table saw.

 

Buy This Dragon In My Etsy Shop
Buy This Dragon At Odin's Toy Factory
 

A little while ago, I stumbled upon a fantastic way to save wood while working on my projects. Rather than resawing and planing thick piece, I began cutting out parts from thicker stock and then resawing the parts to the desired thickness. This technique started on my scroll saw with a zero clearance insert but soon transitioned to my band saw.

My latest project was a dragon figurine, which presented a bit of a challenge. The parts were quite small, and the wood I had on hand was too short for my planer. To add to the dilemma, my bandsaw was acting up, so I decided to experiment with the table saw instead.

Using a simple method, I attached the small part to a larger piece of wood with two-sided tape. Running it through the table saw slowly, I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome. The cut was incredibly smooth, leaving only a tiny nub where the blade exited. This method allowed me to resaw not just the main body of the dragon but also the wings, horns, and arms—all essential components that required precision.

Unfortunately, I got so caught up in the process that I forgot to take photos of the the other parts along the way. But the result was well worth it, and I’m excited to share this breakthrough with others. If you’re working on small, intricate pieces, I highly recommend giving this technique a shot. It’s a great way to maximize your resources and achieve clean, precise cuts.

This is the baby dragons are attached to a larger piece of oak using double sided tape.

This is the setup I used to resaw all the thinner dragon figurine pieces using my Shopsmith table saw and a 5 1/4 inch thin saw blade.