Fret / Jeweler's Saw

[Sean Nagle]

Greg, good point about the kerf. I should get an assortment of blades.

[Shawn Albe]

I was at one of the LN hand tool events, and Deneb used a fret/jeweler's saw with a spiral blade so that he didn't have to do any tweaking/twisting/resetting of the blade in the saw. It worked great. The spiral blades might be scroll saw blades, not sure exactly as it has been a while. HTH.

[Rob Young]

Spiral blades are simply scroll saw blades pre-twisted at the factory. The up side is they don't really have a feed direction so no swinging around of the fret saw frame.

The down side is because they have been twisted, they are not as narrow as a flat blade.

I to have tried using them and while they do work they were too thick to even fit in the kerf from my Veritas DT saw so I would start a new kerf, sweep down then come back and take out the remainder with a second pass.

[Tony Shea]

That craftsman studio saw looks like the ticket as the reach is 5". Seems as though that would be the proper choice instead of a 3 incher.

[lowell holmes]

I like the reach and the blade tensioning screw. The blades in the pack (extra cost, not much though) clear through the kerf made by my LN dovetail saw.

[Jeff Hamilton Jr.]

Thanks Lowell, for the review. This will be the saw I'm getting as well. Knowing that it works with the LV dovetail saw was the seller for me.

Also, as an aside, I've purchased a few LN chisels, Hock blade and DMT plates from Craftsman and the owner has always been great to deal with over the phone. Prices are great and very competitive and its nice to support a small retailer (for me anyway!).

Just my 2 cents.

[Mark Kosmowski]

I recently bought a 12" throat fret saw from Hartville. Is this going to be grossly unwieldy for removing dovetail waste?

[Tony Shea]

I recently bought a 12" throat fret saw from Hartville. Is this going to be grossly unwieldy for removing dovetail waste?

I think that it might be, 12" seems quit a bit excessive. It may be ok depending on the thickness of the steel frame. Just picture swinging around a 12" deep frame and to me seems like an uncomfortable situation. YEMV

[Derek Cohen]

Go to LV for this one ..



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

It is very light and manageable. I have used a number of other makes, all too heavy and unwieldy. The only thing that you will need to watch is that it is cheap and I broke a fitting (easily repaired) after a year. Otherwise a really excellent saw that tension up pretty well.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Tom Henderson2]

Thanks Lowell, for the review. This will be the saw I'm getting as well. Knowing that it works with the LV dovetail saw was the seller for me.

Also, as an aside, I've purchased a few LN chisels, Hock blade and DMT plates from Craftsman and the owner has always been great to deal with over the phone. Prices are great and very competitive and its nice to support a small retailer (for me anyway!).

Just my 2 cents.

+1 on a rave review of Craftsman Studio; they are a first-class outfit.

[Rick Erickson]

+2 on Craftsman Studio. I've bought MANY things from them and all came very well packaged and on time.