Hello Martin
For cutting with a craft knife the first rule is to always use a sharp blade and to help the blade stay sharp try cutting on a self healing cutting mat, to achieve square cuts buy yourself a small engineers square with a metal blade and use this every time you make a short cut.
For longer cuts firstly make sure that the wood is firmly fixed to the cutting mat, I use double sided tape, and use a steel rule as a straight edge for the knife to follow.
As for using a handsaw in a mitre box I use Japanese razor saw which is very sharp and has a pull action, it cuts as you pull the blade back rather than the traditional saws that cut as you push away. And I put a piece of scrap wood under the timber that I am cutting so that the saw doesn’t bite into the mitre box.
There is no secret to cutting wood just use sharp tools, steel straight edges and always firmly clamp the wood so it can’t skip about under the blade.
For making uniform cuts try using a template and making all of the parts by cutting around it.
I hope this helps.
Paul
Edited By The Fat Controller on 18/03/2009 07:05:43