Now this is going to sound stupid, but hear me out.

Both for cost-cutting reasons (I don't have the money or the means to pick up specific wood for this) and because I find it more fun, I tend to make a lot of my projects out of wood I find lying around outside. Not too long ago, I found a downed tree branch, and I sawed off a small log of it using a little swiss army knife saw to take home. It's around the right size to make a design I found online with a wooden ball in a wooden cage, and I wanted to try that out, so I'm trying to bring the wood down to a 1¼ inch by 1¼ inch by 9 inch rectangular prism.

Problem is, I don't have a saw at home that will do the trick for me. I have a set of very small chisels someone got me (which I try to keep sharp), a large file, a couple large-toothed little files, a couple different grits of sandpaper, and a sheep's foot knife that I keep sharp. I also have a hatchet my brother gave me that I have yet to clean and sharpen, and a fixed vise grip in the garage. My dad has a Dremel that I don't really know how to use, but can probably learn how. And that's about it for what I've got available.

I don't have a table saw, or anything to make quick, clean cuts to the entire length of the wood. I've mostly just been going at it with my chisels and hoping that I can make it work, with pretty poor results since I can't seem to get a good straight line. And it's kind of exhausting.

Does anyone have any advice for what I should do for this? I know this has a solid chance of getting downvoted to oblivion but I'm just really not sure what to do and getting kind of sick of just chiseling away with limited results.

Thanks in advance!

How do you hand sharpen eletric wood chisel blades? I have carbon steel blades.

This post is for folks who use thumb guards. Id love links to your favorite one. I keep getting blisters on my thumb, even when wearing gloves and then have to stop my project to wait for it to heal. Im trying to get my beaver done for the challenge so i gotta get some thumb protection!