Bow, pad, compass and coping saws

For me...

Scott Burr Ben Lomond,CA

>Coping saw can't cut anything over 3/4 inch with out problems. I'd love to talk about bow saws, but I have one and still need a blade for it. Scott, South Park is on BYE!

Re: just size of work

paul womack

>A bow saw is (normally, pace Bob Smallser) larger, and used for larger work.

A Classic use would be cutting the elegantly shaped end pieces of small wall mounted shelves.

BugBear

Re: Bow, pad, compass and coping saws

JL work

>I have used bow saws upon occasion. I would say bow saws for work over 1" thick. That isn't to say if you put a finer blade on a bow saw, you couldn't use it for thinner work than 1". The size of the piece you are sawing also plays a factor. The bow saws I have used have been made using bandsaw blades. An excellent use for non functional bandsaw blades.

Re: Bow, pad, compass and coping saws *LINK*

Bob Smalser, Seabeck, WA

>They're just using the wrong coping saw.

Make yourself one of these for some serious blade tension, use the fine-tooth blades available at Sears, and cutting 90-degree corners in even 5/4 stock is no longer an issue.




How To Make One

Re: Bow, pad, compass and coping saws

Patrick Gibbons, mcgdogm, TX

>I don't own a bandsaw and I was under the impression that bow saws were used for cutting shapes. This use has been superceded by the bandsaw. Could one of your bow saws that you've made Bob be used easily for other than dovetails?

Re: Bow, pad, compass and coping saws

Skip in Falls Church

>It seems to me that it would really depend on the size of the bow saw. One of the carpenters down at Williamsburg showed me a small one he made using a coping saw blade. He said he used it to do the fine detail work on cabinetry. He said that he could get better tension on the blade using the bow saw instead of the coping saw. (Not to mention that it was more in keeping with the period.) I keep meaning to make one - if nothing else they are cute. :)

Skip

Re: Bow, pad, compass and coping saws

Jim Crammond in Monroe, Mi.

>Patrick,

I prefer to use a bowsaw wherever possible. My bowsaw is about 24" long with a 1/4" blade 10 or so TPI. It cuts much faster than a coping saw. Usually the tightness of the radius of the curve I'm cutting determines the saw I use but then I seldom work with stock less than 1/2" thick.

Jim

Re: Bow, pad, compass and coping saws

Bob Smalser, Seabeck, WA

>Sure...they are turning saws.

The issue is how tight of a curve they can cut.

Using the frame coping saw and a fine, thin Sears blade....not shown, a thick one is in my pic....will allow you to make your vertical cuts using a dovetail saw followed by doing the horizontal cut using the coping saw so that almost no chisel work is needed.

Practice some and you can do the entire joint with just the coping saw.

Re: Bow, pad, compass and coping saws

Don Thompson - Cutler Ridge, Florida

>Patrick (BTW, what is a mcgdogm?),

Bow saws were the standard, all-around saw, I believe, from looking at old-time woodprints, etc. Not just for turning cuts. Frank Klausz demonstrates using a big one in a video for making tenons. I got the idea that was how he was trained back in eastern europe when he apprenticed with his father. Looks clumsy to me, but I have never tried one.

Bow vs. Frame and mcgdogm

Patrick Gibbons, mcgdogm, TX

>This may just be a British tradition, but I think of a bow saw as a frame saw with usually a 12" blade used specifically for curved cuts. A frame saw has a 26" blade and is used like a hand or rip saw. My firewall and anti virus software scrambles my home location of mcgdogm if I don't catch it first. I was just too lazy to catch it in time.

Re: Bow vs. Frame and mcgdogm

Patrick Gibbons, mcgdogm, TX

>mcgdogm is the bayou city just up the road from Galveston and inbetween Sugarland and Pasadena. My firewall is not letting me tell you again where I am.

Witness Protection Program?

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>Boy, your computer's really trying to take care of you! This way, if you find that elusive $1 No. 1, none of us can drive down, stand on your front lawn, and whimper.

You are right, senior moment here. *LINK*

Don Thompson - South of Miami

>Although, the fellow in the link below has this take on it:

A turning saw is a type of bow saw; bow saws, in turn, are a type of frame of frame saw.

I thought a frame saw was the kind with the blade in the middle, used for resawing. (?) I guess I shifted all of the descriptions over one place. :-(

I'll just go sit in the corner and listen.


Making Bow Saws

Resawing Frame Saw *LINK*

Don Thompson - South of Miami

>I wrongly thought this was exclusively a frame saw:


Resawing with a Frame Saw