# The Cut List Hewn Shop Notes · https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-cut-list AI-drafted, not yet checked: Drafted by Chip, the writing system Hewn runs on Claude, from Hewn's craft corpus. Jonathan Salomons has not read this note yet, and no outside reader has checked it. Read it as a shop note: check a number before you cut to it. Cite as: "The Cut List." Hewn Shop Notes, hewn.build/shop-notes/the-cut-list. Drafted 2026-04-23; AI-drafted, not yet checked. --- A cut list is a list of finished dimensions. Width, length, thickness of every part, sized for assembly or the next step. Those numbers are correct. They are not a list of what you cut. That gap is where the expensive mistakes live. ## What those numbers actually mean Take a table leg: 1-3/4" × 1-3/4" × 29". Those dimensions describe the leg when it meets the apron. They say nothing about what you buy, how much you buy, or how you orient the grain when you rough it out. A cut list is a list of promises. You're committing to deliver each part at those dimensions. The question you answer before anything hits the saw is whether you can actually keep the promise. ## The milling loss problem Every pass removes material. The jointer flattens a face. The planer makes them parallel. You leave a couple inches on each end so you can trim square after milling. By the time a part reaches its finished dimension, it has been smaller at three different stages. The cut list shows you the destination. You have to think backward to find your starting point. A part that finishes at 3/4" needs rough stock that will yield 3/4" after jointing and planing. That usually means starting at 7/8" or 1" rough. If you're buying surfaced lumber, measure actual thickness. S4S 4/4 from many suppliers runs 11/16" to 13/16". If your stock comes in at 11/16", a finished dimension of 3/4" is fantasy. You're 1/16" short before you've even started. Wide panels compound it. A top that finishes 14" wide from two joined pieces needs stock wide enough for jointed glue edges on each piece, then ripping to rough width, then final trimming. The cut list says 14". Your lumber yard visit depends on what 14" actually requires in rough form. None of this is hard. But it happens at the bench with a pencil, not at the saw with a blade spinning. ## What the cut list won't tell you Grain direction. The entry says "shelf, 3/4" × 10" × 36"." It doesn't say whether that shelf runs with or across the grain of the carcass sides. It doesn't say flat-sawn or quartersawn. It doesn't say which face is the show face. Those calls are yours. This matters more than some people think. A 10" flat-sawn shelf moves roughly 1/4" seasonally. If the carcass design accommodates that movement, fine. If the plan assumed quartersawn stock and you're buying flat-sawn, the movement math in the plan is wrong for your material. The cut list won't flag that. The elevation drawings might, if you look. Cross-grain joints need the same attention. Breadboard ends, face frames on plywood carcasses, solid panels in frames. The cut list gives you the finished number. You need to know which dimension is fixed and which one floats. ## The waste factor A cut list that totals 32 board feet of walnut does not mean you need 32 board feet. You need 32 board feet of usable, correctly oriented, correctly figured material out of boards that have their own knots, checks, sapwood, and opinions about grain direction. Standard waste factor for furniture: 30–40% above the net cut list footage. Grain-matching drawer fronts or working with figured stock? Add more. Wide slabs where position matters? More still. The cut list gives you the net. The yard charges you the gross. The difference is real money and it's not optional. ## Fifteen minutes that save the build Before stock hits the saw, go through the cut list with your actual material in hand. Every part gets four questions. Do you have stock wide enough after milling? Is the species what the plan assumes, and if you're substituting, do the movement numbers still work? Is the grain direction right for each part? Is there a dimension that assumes quartersawn stock when you're working flat-sawn? This takes fifteen minutes. The output is the list you actually cut from: rough dimensions next to finished dimensions, grain direction noted, any flags for thickness or species. Many plans include a cut list — the good ones do. But what they print is the finished list. This version, the one that carries your stock, your grain calls, your shop, is the one you build. A column of rough numbers, a few margin notes (QS for this panel, mark show face on rough stock, confirm actual thickness before the dado setup), and you're ready to cut with your eyes open. And you keep revising it. The actual yield off the planer rarely matches the plan to the sixty-fourth. A part you decide to re-cut during fitting changes the part next to it. The working list isn't something you finish before the build — it's something you keep current until the last joint closes. The cut list in the plan is the promise. The check you do before cutting is how you find out whether you can keep it.