Dean, I think a small miter box would make an excellent scarf. I use a vacuum powered jig on the RAS. I have found that if you match the color and the grain, an across-the-face scarf at 1:8 or 1:12 wont even show. It also looks nice to use different color wood this way, just set the scarf angle and you get a transition in color with no accent strip. The trick is to get each cut the same, and a miter box would work admirably for that.

> If this is the case and I have to scarf, I'd like to do the
> cleaner-looking through-the-thickness scarf. Nick's book shows a belt
> sander for this, but this wouldn't fly with my neighbors (buncha pansies.)
> Would I get a decent edge if I made a mini-miter box for this and used a
> small, fine hand saw?