Resawing on a bandsaw.

Resawing means standing a board on its edge and sawing it into thinner boards: veneers, book-matched panels, or two thin boards from one thick one. It is the job a bandsaw does better than any other machine in a small workshop, and it asks the most of the blade and the setup.

How tall can you cut?

The depth of cut is the height between the table and the upper guide at its highest. On a typical 14-inch bandsaw that is about 6 in; a riser block raises it to about 12 in and needs a longer blade. Your manual gives the figure for your saw.

The blade.

• Wide. Use the widest blade your saw is documented for, or close to it. A wide blade resists bending sideways in a tall cut and wanders less. Check the width range on your machine’s page.
• Coarse. Few teeth with large gullets carry the sawdust out of a tall cut. Fine Woodworking recommends 3 TPI for resawing; Woodcraft suggests a skip tooth. A blade with many teeth fills its gullets, slows down and burns.
• Sharp. A tired blade that still manages curves will drift and wander in a resaw. Many woodworkers keep a dedicated resaw blade and fit it only for this job. A carbide-tipped blade lasts longest and leaves the smoothest surface; see carbon, bi-metal or carbide.

Setting up.

1. Tension and track the blade as your manual says for its width. Wide blades need more tension than narrow ones, and a slack blade bows in a tall cut.
2. Set the guides close to the blade, and lower the upper guide to just above the board.
3. Find the drift. Many blades cut slightly off square to the table edge. Draw a line along a scrap board, cut freehand along it for a short distance and stop. The angle the board ended up at is the blade’s drift.
4. Set the fence. Angle a tall fence to match that drift, or fit a single-point resaw guide and steer the board by hand. A tall fence keeps the board upright.

Making the cut.

Joint one face and one edge of the board first so it stands square on the table and against the fence. Feed steadily and let the blade clear the sawdust; if it slows, burns or starts to wander, ease off. Use a push block for the end of the cut and keep your hands away from the line of the blade. Expect the sawn faces to need planing or sanding; a resawn board usually moves a little as the stresses in the wood are released, so cut it a bit thicker than you need and let it settle before final thicknessing.

Sources

• Roland Johnson, “Essential Bandsaw Blades”, Fine Woodworking #252, January/February 2016.
• Jody Garrett, “Choosing the Right Bandsaw Blade”, Woodcraft, updated April 2026.