how do we establish our initial cut in a wood slab great question let’s do one this is just going to be a demonstration I won’t do any actual cutting in this video so please excuse the footwear alright so we have drawn a line where we want the cut and we’ve made marks an inch and a half to the side because I know that’s the distance between my saw’s blade and its guide so now that we’ve got our slab up on blocks we’re gonna put a straight edge our level on my two marks and then get some clamps flip it around first to make it easy for a left hander and then get some clamps and secure it into place it’s possible to do this cut without the guide with a good eye a steady hand and experience and I’ll still have to run these edges over the jointer before the table saw but that’s mostly because you can’t run a bookmark thin strip over the jointer so I do it first before I cut it off to save myself sanding time I have used very little of that slab for these bookmarks and all the sawdust goes out into the compost so we’re being as green as we can here we got some shorties for paperbacks if you get my book with the bookmark bonus option leave a note asking for cedar they’re just the right size to disappear into there