Craft & Design
Kerf Allowance
How much material a saw blade eats across multiple cuts — ripping, crosscuts, bandsaw, laser.
Kerf Allowance
Inputs
Results
Kerf per cut
0.1250 in
Total material lost
0.104 ft across 10 cuts
1.250 in
Remaining stock
Started with 96.0 in
94.750 in
Waste percentage
1.30%
How to use this
Every saw cut removes material equal to the blade thickness — the kerf. Ten cuts on a 1/8 in table-saw blade eats 1-1/4 inches of stock. That’s why you cut slightly oversize and sneak up on final dimension, and why cut lists need to account for the sum of all kerfs when you’re trying to hit a final total length.
Bandsaws and Japanese pull saws have much thinner kerfs — better for book-matching and resawing where every 1/32 in matters. Laser and CNC cuts are nearly kerfless, but not zero.
Formula
total_kerf_loss = kerf_width × number_of_cuts
remaining = stock_length − total_kerf_loss
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Add lumber, hardware, finish, and labor into a true project cost — and cost per piece if you are making multiples.
Formula
total_kerf_loss = kerf_width × number_of_cuts