Maybe it's my new stripper-builder attitude, but just eyeball it and Go!

When I'm cutting scarfs to join two shorter strips to run the length of an 18' boat, I just cut about an 6:1 scarf (a little over 1" long on a 1/4" thick strip). Then, when cutting the matching strip, I lay the second strip next to the first cut strip. I mark both ends of the "ramp" on the edge of my second strip and use these two marks to line up my saw (a hacksaw! of all things) and cut the second scarf. If everything isn't true, parallel, or straight, I just hit the offending scarf with a block plane or coarse grit sandpaper and pretty quickly get things to match up well.

It's more important to be able to make a nice, true scarf on the hull panels; on the shear clamps, which will be covered by the deck and not visible, even an ill-itting joint will be strong enough when glued with thickened epoxy, and a thicker glue line won't be visible to the unknowing eye!

Shawn

> OK I give, in case your wondering what I've been doing with SWIFTWOOD I'm
> kinda stuck.

> How do you cut the cotton picking scarfs on the shear clamps?

> This is what I've tried so far. I've manually holding the saw and wood -
> forget it unless you Norm Abram! I've tried to fit it into my adjustable
> miter box. Which BTW only goes out to 45 degrees. A proper 6to1 scarf is
> about 9 degrees. So I clamped it down. Only to find that the wood was
> hitting the fittings on the miter box. So I spaced it up with a cutoff
> 2x4. I clamped the wood down and cut it only to find out that the wood is
> not perfectly square. So I need a piece of angle iron to clamp, instead
> the side too.

> Hopefully this will work.

> Any tips.

> Whats the steepest angle you've found that will work?