I recently made a fireplace mantel out of rough, old barnboard with slightly wonky edges that I wanted to preserve. A folding bevel joint along the length made the thin board look like a massive plank—the aged wood surface wraps, without interruption, over the top and down the front of the mantel—a bit like the joint in a bentwood cedar box.
Ever ripped a bevel on a table saw? Running the board between the fence and blade works if the board isn’t too wide and has parallel edges. But if you want to bevel live-edge lumber or a wide plywood panel, this won’t cut it.
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Here’s a cool hack that’s a fail-safe game changer. Affix a sacrificial board to the fence face with screws, clamps, or double-sided tape. With the blade lowered out of the way, place the workpiece against the fence and mark its height (use a fine pencil), in line with the blade spindle. Clamp a small block to the fence, just barely covering the pencil line. Tilt the blade 45 degrees toward the fence and raise it to the workpiece thickness. Slide the fence adjacent to the blade, finessing the blade height so that its top corner is about 1/32” (a millimetre is too much) below the block. Move the fence back, and remove the block. Clamp a featherboard to the fence, with the bottom about 1/16” below the workpiece thickness. The featherboard will keep the workpiece flat and tight to the table, ensuring an even cut. Start the saw, and slowly slide the fence into the blade until its high corner just nicks the sacrificial board, then lock it.
Kickback warning: the small, right-triangle offcut between the blade and the fence can be shot backward with great speed—be sure that neither you nor anything of value is in its exit path!
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Trial-cut with a scrap of the same thickness. You want a very narrow flat riding against the fence—a knife-edge is too fragile, more will leave a visible step. Adjust the fence position if necessary.
After cutting the workpiece, look down the bevel cut to be sure it’s straight. If you spy a wobble, just recut; it’s impossible to remove too much.
This article was originally published in the Winter ’25 issue of Cottage Life.
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