Making a Bowsaw. Cherry?

Re: Making a Bowsaw. Cherry?

John Vancil in Silverdale, Wa

>Joe I have made three bowsaws from cherry and they have been holding up well. You just need to make sure you use straight grain wood. I don't leave them tensioned when not in use. Good Luck John!

Re: Making a Bowsaw. Cherry?

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>Just about any well behaved hardwood will work for the stretcher and for the knobs. The arms, however, require a wood which exhibits both tensile and compressile strength parallel to the grain.

You will find another clue in the name of the saw. If it works well for a bow, it should work well for a bowsaw. Therefore, you might start with Bois d'arc (tree of the bow), a.k.a. "hedge" or Osage orange, and Robin Hood's favoirte, English Yew. I have found that soft maple works well enough. In fact, most bow saws I have seen were made from maple. Beech, hickory, ash, birch and elm should also work well. I would not, however, choose a wood that is brittle, or that does not bend well.

Cherry? mas o menos. If I were out where Joe lives, I would also seriously consider at Madrone and Pacific Yew.

Uh, I'm confused...

Joe in a Cleveland suburb

>Sorry William, but I'm confused a little by your post. Are you saying Cherry wouldn't work too well in your opinion? Type slowly for me... :)

Thanks,

Joe

Re: Making a Bowsaw. Cherry?

wayne anderson

>On my list of things to do was: make a bowsaw to use coping saw blades. I happened to have a couple of nice handles from a broken bowsaw, so I used those, and some beech, and made the saw. It was very easy to do, and hey...the blades are cheap and plentiful. Wayne Anderson

Re: Making a Bowsaw. Cherry?

Dave (Arlington, VA)

>Hi Joe -

My "guess" is that cherry would work just fine, as John suggested. I also think that William's suggestions would be "ideal." I made mine out of black locust (also a "bow" wood).

My thought is - if you are a hobbiest and this will see lightish work - then the main consideration would be grain orientation. You would want to use straight-grained pieces for maximum strength. I have heard of people making them out of broomstick handles.

Just make it. It's not hard - and likely you'll make more. No need to get it perfect the first time. As William suggests, you will help yourself if you de-tension it after use.

Have fun. It's a good project.

Regards -

Dave

How to make sure it`s straight grain

Bob Hackett

>I would suggest riving to be sure there`s no grain runnout.

Just about any wood that is riven for straight grain will work as long as the arms are built stout enough.The question is how heavy do you want the saw to be.

If you are looking for a light saw then I`d follow sir William`s suggestions and split the pieces out for strength.

Just pretend it`s practice for that Windsor chair you`ve been meaning to make.

Mainely,Bob

Re: Making a Bowsaw. Cherry?

Luke Herzberg

>Great looking saw, Wayne. Did you build the hammer and punch as well? Nice looking tools.

The pictures folks post are always like "Where's Waldo", with the rest of us straining to identify the odd tiny corner of another tool that is, conveniently, just barely in frame! : )

thanks

- Luke

Ha! My dream...

Joe in a Cleveland suburb

>is to start making Shaker chairs and rockers some day. I'll get there and then get to Windsor chairs.

Speaking of that, my other dream is to go to Mike Dunbars' school some day. Geez, don't get me thinking of all my dreams....

Thanks.

Joe

Re: Making a Bowsaw. Cherry?

wayne anderson

>The hammer and awl are Perfect Handle tools that I picked up cheap. The original handle scales were totally trashed out, cracked and oil-soaked, so I replaced them with cocobolo scraps. The awl was a little screwdriver that had been badly abused, so I gave it a new life as another tool. Cocobolo has long been used for handles on kitchen knives and such, so I assumed that it was a good choice. It should stand up well to everyday use. Besides...I have plenty of off-cuts laying around. The marking knife above the saw is from Steve Knight. I wrapped it with a scrap of thin leather, glued it to keep it from unwinding, and then dipped it several times in shellac. It seems to be holding together well after a couple of years. Wayne

Re: form (and beauty) vs function

paul womack

>The shapes are beautiful, Wayne.

But...

The "stile" shapes reduce the leverage of the twine, (by lowering the attachment point below the top), the extreme curves gives weaker short grain, and the stretcher (which isn't straight) is weaker under compression than an equivalent size (less pretty...) straight one.

I guess if the timbers are of thick enough section (which they look to be) you can get away with all this.

BugBear

Re: form (and beauty) vs function

wayne anderson

>Paul,

Thank you. I had seen this shape used before, so I'm not breaking new ground here. Besides, I happily took advantage of a natural bow in the grain with the stretcher. It's only a little coping saw, and thus is rather short coupled anyway. And as you said, the cross section is rather stout. I've been a mechanical designer most of my working life, and our motto is: when in doubt, build it stout. Wayne

Re: How to make sure it`s straight grain

Dave (Arlington, VA)

>Hi Bob (and Joe) -

Agreed. My black locust arms and crosspiece were riven. Easy. Fast. Fun. Only time will tell, but I hope for long use. As it is, I only finished it a month or so ago - so it's hardly had to stand the test of time.

Regards -

Dave

Thanks.

Joe in a Cleveland Suburb

>Thanks folks for taking the time to reply.

I think I'll just use scrap I have on hand which is mostly cherry. I might have enough curly and/or birdseye maple to use.

But it's just a learning/time filler type of project so we'll see what happens.

Thanks,

Joe

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Re: me, too...

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>I guess by now, you've already got most of your answer, but I'll toss in some more wood lore.

You want the bowsaw to be light, but strong. Cherry does not bend really well. Curly maple is better, and we have discussed several other species that are better yet. If you have access to one of these, you can make a bowsaw that is lighter, and has less chance of a catastrophic failure in use. There are lots of species that are much, much worse than cherry.

You will have a better chance of getting away with cherry if you make the arms thick enough, and if you watch your grain direction. A good way to let the grain direction watch itself is to rive the wood. You do have a froe, don't you? If not, this is a great excuse to get one.

The dimensions BugBear provides work fine for maple arms and cherry stretchers, and the resulting saw is a joy to use. Following his guidelines, I've broken blades, but not any of the wooden parts. I don't know how much lighter you could make it by choosing stronger materials.