Can you do billets without a bandsaw?

[Ryan C]

So I'm wanting to try some billets but I don't have a bandsaw. Can it be done?

[JW_Halverson]

I have done a couple practice runs on 2x4 scraps.  Yup, it can be done.  But I am not going to do it until I have ruined some more pine.

[bowandarrow473]

I imagine you might could do it with a handsaw and some sandpaper and a rasp.

[JW_Halverson]

My first few attempts were pretty rough, but I was using a Stanley Sharktooth saw.  Short and danged aggressive.  I switched to a finish carpentry backsaw, slowed down and held my tongue just right and saw immediate improvement.  I am thinking I want to get one of those Japanese pull saws used in fine cabinetry to try again. 

And then, once I can make some nicer cuts, I will try the technique of boiling or steaming the cuts and press-fitting to get them to mate super close.

[Dakota Kid]

I've done it several times. I quit using power tools so I couldn't blame my mistakes on them any more. Plus they can ruin days of prior work in the blink of an eye. 

Make a paper/tape template of the joint cuts you want to use. I use a saw tooth pattern as long as the handle will be. A coping saw or a Japanese pull saw is used to cut the lines transferred from the template. Attach an adhesive backed sandpaper to one of the joints after you've cleaned it up a little. Work the two piece of wood together at the joint. The one with the sand paper will shape the other to a near perfect fit. Mine fit with no light showing so I decided not to steam fit them. I've done three so far and have had no issues, well... with the billet joint anyway. The limbs on the one were a different story.

Good Luck

[PatM]

Why on earth not? They didn't design  hand saws to cut crooked lines.

[DC]

I think that depends on you and your skills. It obviously"can" be done, it's whether you can do it. I use a bandsaw and a couple of jigs to get pretty good splices. I have a friend that could do better with an axe. Try it. By a bunch of cheap 2x2 and make some sawdust. You may surprise yourself.

[Del the cat]

Yes indeed.
A bandsaw only really makes it  clean and easy if you have boards or billets prepared dead square or jigged up to perfection.
I find it always needs some fiddling and fettling (or steaming and clamping to get the good fit)
There is virtually nothing that you can do with a power tool that can't be done by hand just as well if not better in some cases.
I think we sometimes reach for the power tools too readily, it's not always quicker or better.
When I was a kid the half crown coin went out of circulation... They were nice looking coins so I sawed one in half the hard way, by hand with a hacksaw to produce two discs one head one tail.
Made one half into a pendant and gave it to my girlfriend (it didn't work  )
Del

[stuckinthemud]

A trick you can use to find high spots in a joint is to chalk all over one face and when you trial fit the joint the chalk will rub off on any high spots on the other face which you then pare away; when chalk dusts off across the whole of the face then the joint is close to being perfect.

I enjoyed using my band saw so much I burned it out, I didn't replace it because it made me lazy and my hand-tool skills were not what they should have been.

[Ryan C]

Thanks guys! I'll start practicing.

[Chief RID]

What good advice on a splice! You guys are amazing.

[WillS]

I've done about 4 Z-spliced yew longbows (full compass, bend in the handle) now without any power tools.  A good quality Japanese pull saw does the trick for me.  Just draw the Z splice out on both limbs, clamp it into a vice and away you go.  Shouldn't have to do too much fiddling after it's done, but some light rasping on high spots can help. 

The two ends are then boiled for about 1 hour, and clamped together hard in the vice for a day.  Pull them apart, glue them up, reclamp and you're done.

If you happen to get it badly wrong and the cuts just aren't clean enough, you can make shims for the join out of the excess wood.  Small thin pieces are glued on both faces and with the two limbs pushed together, you lightly tap the shims into place. 

The only splice I've had fail on me so far using the above method was a bend-in-the-handle 140lb yew bow, and it only failed because the splice wasn't long enough.

[DC]

The two ends are then boiled for about 1 hour, and clamped together hard in the vice for a day.  Pull them apart, glue them up, reclamp and you're done.

This really works. It can turn a dogs breakfast into a beautiful splice.

[blackhawk]

Hmmm? I wonder how folks joined furniture and cabinetry before ben franklin decided to go fly a kite...  

[DC]

Magic, they had witches then