Baby Bow Saw – Test Run

So at the urging of a few people who wanted to know how the saw would cut, I put it together this morning and cut a curve in some ¾ pine. Nothing tricky, but the kind of thing I end up doing a lot.

Bow saw and a piece of pine with an arc drawn on it

I put in a new Pegas Coping Skip 6.5” 18tpi blade, and tightened it up. I took it to about an A#, just above A440Hz. That's an octave below the tension I normally have in the metal-framed coping saw, but it feels more solid. I'll tighten it up further after I re-tie the string a little tighter. Currently it took over a dozen turns to get to this tension because the string is fairly loose when straight.

First cut with the bow saw, slightly ragged, but not horrible

The saw cuts reasonably well, and while I didn't hit any places where I was turning so sharply it would bind, the tension in the blade would've kept that from happening.

The offcut from my test piece

The two things I noticed were that it has a shallower throat (not surprising, that's how I built it) so I had to approach the cut differently, and the wood flexes less, which makes it feel more solid in use.

metal-framed coping saw, hanging in a cabinet

I'll keep the metal framed coping saw around, probably with a coarse blade for wasting away wood in a hurry, but I suspect this one will get a lot of use in the future.

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