Fret Saws

[David Keller NC]

Alan - Your post clears this up a bit for me. What I meant was the 99% of cases that I'm doing in my shop - dovetailing drawers. I've two fet saws, one with a 5" throat, and one with an 8" throat that covers just about all situations on drawers. I really wasn't thinking about case sides, in which case you're quite right - a fret saw with an 18" throat would be getting rdiculous (though they still made them up until about 2 years ago).

As for what I do, it'd be difficult to photograph, and I unfortunately do not have a video camera. But I can try to describe what I do a little better: Once the kerf is finished from the dovetail saw (a Western saw -I'm not sure the kerf from a dozuki would be wide enough to accomodate a fret saw blade), I insert the fret saw and slide it down to the bottom of the kerf with the blade extended all the way forward (I set up my fret saws to cut on the pull stroke).

While pulling the fret saw towards me, I twist my wrist so the saw frame winds up at about 45 degrees from horizontal at the end of the stroke. The next stroke completes the move to horizontal, and the fret saw blade is now cutting horizontally along the baseline of the dovetail. From there, of course, it's smooth sailing until the other side and the "tooth" pops out.

Reading this description takes considerably longer than it does to execute it - I've practiced the twist so much that I really don't think about it or slow the progress of the stroke at all.

[Jim Koepke]

After watching the 3 minute dovetail video, I definitley want to buy one or ten. I haven't found any locally, yet. Anyone know Where can I pick one up in the North Houston area?

Mine were bought in eBay auctions. Be careful and do not get carried away. The sellers often do not know what they are selling. Currently, there are more fret saws listed under coping saws than under fret saws. Here is a listing for one that looks similar to the Great Neck 250. 220358656012

This is one that "looks like" a Miller's Falls. 270342072308 It looks like one of the original screws went missing.

Here is another listing for a group. 130286925866 Nothing special, one looks a lot like my post WWII PEER. One looks like it may be difficult to tension a blade. The wing nuts on the brown handled one look a bit cheapy to me.

This one you have to see to believe! 250360216651 Who would have thunk it? A chain drive fret saw. There is always someone trying to build the better mouse trap.

jim

[Jose Kilpatrick]

A coping saw can be angled 360 degrees and can be angled in such a way (somewhere around 30 degrees) where you can cut out waste in dovetails. Now if you were cutting dovetails on some 4" thick stock, I could see where a fretsaw would complete the task and a coping saw would not.

BTW Alan, thanks for the link. I ordered one of the coping saws with the 18 TPI .018" thick blades. I'll let you know how it performs.

[Alan DuBoff]

A coping saw can be angled 360 degrees and can be angled in such a way (somewhere around 30 degrees) where you can cut out waste in dovetails. Now if you were cutting dovetails on some 4" thick stock, I could see where a fretsaw would complete the task and a coping saw would not.

Actually, the fret saw is better suited for thin material, like for marquetry or detail work that needs to be cut out by hand such as inlay.

Yes, the pins will secure and hold the blade much better, so at the end of the day the coping saw can do the same thing, if the blade is thin enough to fit in the kerf. If it is not, you could always make 2 passes for each cut, to clean the waste out, but the idea of using a fret saw and/or the thin blades is so that you can get the blade in the dovetail kerf and angle and turn it as David Keller describes, that is how I do it also David.

The limitation of using a fret saw without kinking the blade is that you are limited to the depth of the frame, so 2x that distance is the most you can cut (using the throat on both side of the board).

BTW Alan, thanks for the link. I ordered one of the coping saws with the 18 TPI .018" thick blades. I'll let you know how it performs.

Please do let us know how you like them. They have a courser blade with 15 TPI, but it is .020". That will work for many dovetail saws also, but the .018" is a safer bet, even the older Disston 68/69/70 saws had a plate that was less than .020" in some cases. At least I have some that mic out at about .017"-.018".

I am using .020 on a 13" long plate I'm working on right now. But I would use .018" up to about 12". Andrew Lunn is using .015" on his dovetail saws, and for saws up to about 8"-10" I think that would work fine. There is quite a difference between an 8" and a 12" long plate.

All of our mileage varies, some folks don't even cut the waste out with a saw...it's not just about how thin the saw plate is, it depends on the type of saw, how course the teeth are, the rake, the amount of set, etc...and therein lies the science of saw making.

[frank shic]

You know, I never thought much about it, but it might be possible to kink the blade around 45 degrees, so that the front was in properly and the mid/rear was kinked 45 degrees, so you could use the fret saw like Frank Klausz does his bow saw (bigger blade, much harder to twist) by starting off with the blade in the bottom of the slot and just put it through to continue the cut on the twisted section, if that makes sense.

this is a FASCINATING idea and deserves further research...

[paul womack]

There was mention of different ways to use a fret saw when cutting dove tails, but they can be used for so much more, so here is a new thread on fret saws.

Those are beautiful saws, but I'd call them "jewellers" or "piercing" saws, as opposed to "fret" saws.

Fret saws are used (doh!) for fretwork, which requires a far deeper throat. 12" is the smallest I know of, and I own a 18" model.

Here's a modern one:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...=1,42884,42902

BugBear

[John Keeton]

Frank, on kinking the blade more than 30 degrees, use caution - they will snap! Not very expensive, but hate to waste one.