Rip cut

In woodworking, a rip-cut is a type of cut that severs or divides a piece of wood parallel to the grain.

Also, smaller portable sawmills and chainsaw mills use rip-cuts to produce lumber.

Each time a piece of wood is rip cut it takes time and the kerf material turns into sawdust and loses value so the number and width of each rip cut influence the economics of the operation: This gives band saws an advantage over circular saws and chainsaws.

Plain-sawn is the most common type of cut where a log is repeatedly run through a saw and much of the lumber has wood grain nearly parallel to the width of the boards.

Quarter sawn and rift-sawn wood is more time consuming and wasteful to produce but is of higher quality.