MIMF

A lengthy discussion on the old Forum about the possibility of resawing by hand inevitably come around to the topic of frame saws. A great video was posted of one in use. These saws are not only good for resawing, but they will also cut large dimension lumber. I would much rather use my band saw, but I do not have risers for it and recently had to cut a block that was too big for it. Here is my quick and dirty tutorial on making a quick and dirty frame saw.

Frame saws epitomize simplicity at its best. Four pieces of wood, a blade, and something to tension the blade with. That's it. The whole thing is held together by tension, no fasteners required.

[*]Sides - were cut from a single 8 foot long 1" x 2" piece of oak from some big box store.
[*]Blade - 2" Wilhelm Putsch blade, from Highland woodworking, about $8-10 each. I got a couple in different teeth per inch.
[*]Two 1/4" x 20 carriage bolts
[*]Knobs with 1/4" threads from Woodcraft

[For those of you who haven't discovered it yet, click the image for a full size view.]

I don't have the saw right now, so I have to post details by (shaky) memory. The blade is 26.5" long, so I think the sides were about 28" long. The crosspieces were about 20", so I could get all four bars out of an 8 foot board. A couple quick cuts put a 1/4" tenon on each end of the longer pieces.

The shorter pieces got 1/4" wide mortises on each end. I just drilled four 1/4" holes and cleaned up the mortise with chisels.

I took 1/4" carriage bolts, chopped the heads off to use with the knobs, and split the end. There wasn't enough bolt left at the end and these sheared off pretty quickly in use.

So here is the finished frame saw. There are no fasteners. The tenons fit well, but not tightly into the mortises. The whole saw is held together by the tension on the blade. I did take a few minutes with the microrasp to shape the sides and ends. Made it MUCH more comfortable to use!

The advantage to the no fasteners construction is that the whole saw breaks down for storage. I have heard of others storing their frame saws in a length of 4" PVC pipe.

So how did it work? Don't ask! The saw is actually light and easy to use, but I had a little trouble keeping the line where I wanted it. Mind you, this was the first time I had ever used such a saw! Once this 2" blade starts cutting, you cannot adjust it, so get it right the first time. The video has some excellent tricks. I also found some problem with the blade twisting, and would recommend some sort of blade stabilizer on each end.

The bolts were clearly not up to the tension and busted pretty easily. The larger saw in the video has some steel tube sections to hold the blade that seem to work really well, and keep the blade square at all times on top of it. I am going to have to look into this further for a new blade mount.

For $20 in parts, you can't go wrong if you have large lumber to cut, or really want the exercise of resawing.

Here is a pic of my take on the saw.

$20.00!!

I only used 2 bolts one nut, and 2 nails.

I assume using these takes 2 people?

Mine is operated comfortably by a single person. The frame saw in the video was a lot bigger, at nearly 6' or 2 m, and the demonstrator operated it alone. They are typically built symmetric so you can use it from both sides.

Add a frame and one can mount one of these at the end of a workbench, add an overhead bow and a treadle and you have a low-tech band saw. Used to be a colonial era watchmakers shop in Easthampton, ca WW-2 it was sold and relocated (to Winterthur?); a book was published to catalog the tools and stuff.

Pretty cool, and definately on my projects list! By the way, in the library of the old forum was a file on building your own band saw. Don't know if it's still there.

If it was in the Library, it still is in the Library, and will eventually be in the Library here.

The gizmo that I was shackled to, er, used in the gunsmith shop in Williamsburg had a narrower blade, of perhaps 3/4" width, fairly thick , about 1/16", and had fairly coarse teeth with a wide set. You could saw some curves with it- the frame was wide enough and the saw kerf wide enough as well. No sharp curves, but with the frame saw and a regular hand saw you could cut out something like guitar neck blanks, I'd say. With your wider blade, curves would be harder but straight lines ought to be easier. If you have the board clamped vertically, and have a friend helping, putting the friend on on side and you on the other, alternately pulling, makes it easier to keep to a line. Yeah, you have to have a line on both sides of the board, so you both can see.

While you are sawing, it's very important never to imagine a bandsaw. You'll be much more efficient at sawing, if you don't.

Wow, does that bring back memories of hand cutting veneer while building my portfolio. Dad built them from good wood, walnut, cherry, beach and locust. They are beautiful wall hangers now, and I like them much better there then in the shop