How To Stop Wood From Splintering When Cutting

Stuck with having to hide the splintered edges of the board you just cut or worse tossing it? Learn how to stop wood from splintering with these tips.

One of the biggest challenges that a beginner faces when cutting wood for the first time is how to keep wood from splintering when cutting it.

This can ruin your project!

Often I end up with a piece I can’t use, ending up wasting wood and my time.

So how do you stop wood from splintering when cutting it? It’s simple, support the wood you are cutting along it’s entire length on both sides of the cut.

There are a few ways to support the wood and it depends on the material and saw you use.

Why Does Wood Splinter When Cutting It

Wood is composed of fibres that runs along its length. Think of it like a bundle of toothpicks.

When you crosscut wood (across the grain, not with it), the saw is trying to cut those fibres in half. However the fibre is flexible and prone to separating if stressed. We’ve all seen the stereotypical exploded tree trunk hit by lightening where shards of wood are sticking up in all directions.

If those fibres are supported, they have no where to go and so they stay put. However if there is nothing behind the fibres, they will pull away from the wood surface and then you get splintering.

Going back to the toothpick example, try cutting the bundle of toothpicks without having toothpicks go everywhere – probably impossible unless you hold the toothpicks together really well or cut them on a hard surface or use a really sharp, fine saw.

Ripping wood along the grain usually doesn’t cause any splintering. Similar to how cutting through the toothpicks lengthwise just parts them.

Stop Wood From Splintering When Cutting With A Table Saw

A table saw blade rotates in a downward motion. So any splintering or tear-out is going to happen on the bottom of your workpiece.

The best option to minimize splintering is to use what is called a zero-clearance insert. Every table saw has a throat plate that sits around the saw blade and it’s main purpose is to support wood, so small pieces of wood don’t go into the hole around the blade.

Standard throat plates that come with your saw have a wide slot that is designed to accommodate a large range of blade thicknesses. The plates are usually made from metal for durability, so the saw manufacturer wants to ensure the blade won’t contact the edges of the slot. So the slots are made wider than necessary to provide enough clearance.

You can replace the throat plate though with a zero clearance insert. There are after-market ones made of various materials such as MDF or plastic.

Here’s a list where you can find the right one for your particular saw brand and model: 

Or make your own. Here is a video that demonstrates this:

You can of course make multiple table saw zero-clearance inserts for different blades and even for common dado stack widths.

If you don’t want to go through the effort of creating inserts, you can also use a thin piece of sacrificial plywood underneath the workpiece you are cutting and send both through the table saw at the same time.

Or you can also use a table saw sled. Most sleds are setup so that the sled bottom is one big zero clearance insert. In fact some, like the one I built, use a special replaceable middle where you can have different inserts depending on blade angle or blade thickness if you use dado stacks frequently.

Another alternative you