: I've split a bit of wood, and generally I found it easier to split
: from a log, or log section, than from a plank.
: There's lots of info online on this stuff- the 'country
: woodworking' crowd do a lot of it.
:
: http://uncpress.unc.edu/woodwright/images/Underhill_Guide_excerpt.pdf

: One strategy that works for me is to split a piece off the edge of
: a board to establish a 'straight grain' section, plane it
: smooth, and then put that against the rip fence.
: (This is a common technique for getting out bracing for musical
: instruments.)

I might try an initial split and rip on the bandsaw, it does cut pretty consistently (albeit not parallel to my flat fence). I can get pretty decent rips with my single-point fence, but the leading end of the rip tends to be a little off, and it usually takes a few rips to get the thickness right. I'd just like to avoid it mostly because I'm not wild about the level of finish on the cut edge, and it's a fair amount of hassle (compared to a tablesaw, set the width and get a lot of clean, straight cuts).

I could probably cut along some fairly wonky grain patterns using the initial split followed by rip-sawing on the one-point fence, I may give this a shot.