Bow Saw

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03-01-2012, 10:23 PM
Jerry Thompson

Bow Saw

I saw a Bow Saw maker's wares on EBay. He had some very nice items. I sent him a msg asking if he had an 18'' saw with a rip blade. This would be used for resawing. He said he could supply one but the did not recommend resawing anything wider that 6'' with their saws. I can saw that on my band saw.
Then I had a great idea. I have my fater's Disiten(sp) rip saw, the one with the hole in the tote for other hands thumb. It had been sharpened a long time ago. I took into a 1ft length of cherry that was about 8'' wide. Yes I worked up a sweat but I think with a good going over and a sharpening it would to much better.
03-02-2012, 1:49 AM
Jim Koepke

Resawing with a hand saw is a lot of work. I haven't done anything that wide. My biggest so far is about 4".

I have been ripping a lot of 4 & 5/4 ash lately 10 or 20 feet of that and then hitting it with a plane is enough hard work in a day for me.

jtk
03-02-2012, 8:46 AM
Zach Dillinger

Yup, a proper rip saw will do a lot of resawing work. I'm assuming you are talking about CME Handworks. They make some great things at very fair prices. An 18" saw is a little short for resawing anything over 6", Chris is right. That doesn't give you a very long stroke, meaning it will take forever to saw through. I prefer my handsaws for resawing anyway, I find it easier to saw straight with them.
03-02-2012, 9:14 AM
john brenton

I've gone back and forth on the bowsaw tip, and I decided not to use a western saw for a while to really give bowsaws a fair shot. I have a 26" 5 tpi blade, a 23" 8 tpi rip blade, and an 19" turning saw, all in the classic German bow saw style.

There are some things that I still really prefer a bowsaw for, like joinery and ripping anything under 1" right at the bench. But for crosscutting, or heavier ripping, or resawing, I definitely prefer a western rip saw. I still always try the bowsaw to see how it performs, but the western style always outperforms.

One things I've noticed is that my bowsaws are just not stout enough. I think if you're going to use bowsaws for heavy work, you have to make the frame yourself and make it stout.
03-02-2012, 9:23 AM
Mike Holbrook

Jerry
I have Tage Frid's classic woodworking books. Tage loved bowsaws but many prefer western saws. It is easier to find good western saws and most people find them easier to use. I was looking at bowsaws too, Highland Woodworking has always carried them. Wood Joy Tools makes excellent larger bowsaws too. I kinda put off the idea of a bowsaw when I read a post by one of our experienced neander bowsaw fans saying he found a good western rip saw proved faster for him. Most of the guys who actually use bowsaws these days seem to use the japanese blades, the actual western & german bowsaw blades have often not proven to be very good.

The Gramercy 12" bowsaw is quite popular among fellows on these pages. This is a turning saw though. It gets used to cut curves that the regular saws can not make.

One other saw to consider is the New Concepts fret/jewelers saw. This is an improved fret or coping saw that uses coping saw blades in a much stouter body. It is popular for very tight turns and getting into the corners of dovetails..., when sawing out the waste.
03-02-2012, 11:40 AM
Jim Matthews

Having done some extensive resawing of Cherry by hand, I have a new appreciation for the power of electrons channeled through my bandsaw.

For most things, I prefer the hand tools, including long rip cuts with my bowsaw. Resawing by hand is cumbersome, tedious and exhausting. (Note my avatar - I have trod this path, and it's rough ground.)
Not to mention - the precision of the bandsaw far exceeds what I can manage. I was delighted to see Jim Tolpin had confirmed my suspicions in his "New Traditional" text.

The catch with bow saw use is that you really need practice to get it to work well, and it's A LOT of practice. Anthony Guidice recommends cutting straight rips longer than 20 inches 50 times.
I doubt I cut that many feet in a year. The bow saw excels at getting back on track with a little twist. It's also terrific when I want to rip to a line on long boards that are otherwise unmanageable.

That said, two thirds of my handsaw use is with a 16" tenon saw and the rest divided among shorter panel saws.
03-02-2012, 6:44 PM
Andrae Covington

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Koepke

Resawing with a hand saw is a lot of work. I haven't done anything that wide. My biggest so far is about 4".

I have been ripping a lot of 4 & 5/4 ash lately 10 or 20 feet of that and then hitting it with a plane is enough hard work in a day for me.

jtk

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Matthews

Having done some extensive resawing of Cherry by hand, I have a new appreciation for the power of electrons channeled through my bandsaw...

I've also been resawing cherry, using a couple western rip saws, and I can confidently say that I do not enjoy the process at all.:( I was pretty romantic about working towards doing everything by hand until I tried resawing. Now I wish I had a bandsaw. I wouldn't dissuade anyone from trying, it's a good skill to learn; but it's a lot of work, a lot of time, and easy to wander off the line and create extra planing work on top of the sawing work.

For a ripping frame saw, I recommend taking a look at the one on Mike Siemsen's blog. After looking at a Colonial Williamsburg version and Adam Cherubini's version, he made some improvements that apparently make the saw work better.