: Keep your eye on the gap to ensure your line stays straight.

Halfway through the cut, the resistance changed. The wood felt softer, more yielding. He was in the rhythm now, a meditation of movement where the saw felt like an extension of his own bone. He wasn't thinking about the bookshelf he was building or the time he was losing; he was only thinking about the next inch.

: Feel how the wood reacts to the teeth and adjust your pressure.

: Focus on long, steady strokes rather than short, choppy ones.