Fret Saw or Not

[Tom Winship]

Do you use a fret (or coping saw) to remove stock between tails and/or pins when cutting dovetails.

[Sean Hughto]

Nope. Just a chisel.

[Tom Winship]

Sorry Sean, it went out before the poll was attached. Vote now please.

[David Weaver]

Coping, with a coarse blade, cut straight down into the waste and then turn during the cut.

Too little rigidity to the fretsaw, tried it for a while, and thought it was a pain to deal with. The jewelers saws have little throat clearance, and the big-clearance fret saws are heavy and awkward. Even though the blades don't break that often, it's still annoying when they do.

[Greg Crawford]

I learned from the Cosman DVD, or I should say the first half DVD, as he doesn't go into all that I thought he was going to. (Sells more DVDs that way, I guess). I went a step further though. I make two extra vertical cuts with the dovetail saw about 1/8" apart. I use the fret saw to remove that waste, and that makes enough room to get a coping saw in. I find the coping saw makes a better cut, leaving just a small amount to pare with a chisel. It sounds cumbersome, but it saves me time in the long run. The coping saw cuts faster than a fine fret saw blade too.

[Chris Griggs]

Coping saw. My saw is a Stanley Fatmax but I use Olson 18ppi skip tooth blades that I got from Tools For Working Wood. I pretty much use the same technique that David W described.

[Michael Peet]

I started with only chiseling, but now use a fret saw to remove most of the waste. It is faster for me. It also reduces the amount of chiseling needed, thereby reducing the amount of chisel sharpening needed.

Fret saw blades are thin enough to fit in the saw kerf, and can be twisted so the small throat is not an issue. I wax the blades before each cut too - it makes a difference.

Mike

[David Weaver]

They fit in the kerf of some saws, but not all. This generally the reason I don't do the "turn the blade" trick, because they don't fit in the saw kerf of my favorite dozuki and I can't cut straight across. The coping saw just ends up being faster.

If I used a western saw, I'd probably use the saw with the blade twisted like cosman demonstrates, because I could just cut straight across.

Either method works fine, though - just personal choice.

[gary Zimmel]

I always use a fret saw to remove the waste.
Seems to work for me.

[Jim Koepke]

Maybe, sometimes, that choice was not available.

I keep trying to reinvent my way of cutting dovetails. Haven't finished the last set that was started. Too much other work.

On my last cut on the pin board a different technique was used. It is based on using my Bishop #10 saw. The design of this saw is that it has two cutting edges on the saw plate. The blade is to be flipped to change from rip or crosscut or from a coarse blade to a fine toothed blade. One of the functions that the back can serve is a depth stop.

My technique on this one was to make multiple kerfs in the waste to chisel it out. Not sure if it is doing real well.

I have used a fret saw to cut the waste out and then pare with a chisel.

It seems it is not much savings of time to saw out the waste as compared to chopping out the waste.

jim

[David Weaver]

Does anyone use a dozuki and chop out the waste?

I guess there were only a couple of new western saws available when I started hand tooling, and they were a lot more expensive than a dozuki, so I started with that, and never can get comfortable making accurate cuts with a western saw now.

But the dozukis don't leave much kerf to work with chopping out waste when I've tried, just unpleasant. My pins almost meet at the tails and are fairly steep, which with the thin kerf doesn't help things, either. I cut tails first, that's just how they end up.

[Mike Henderson]

I used to use a bandsaw to remove some of the waste.

But more so now, I just chop it out. I cut down lightly then cut into the down cut to create a "V" and keep working from there.

One problem I used to have is the waste breaking off rather than being cut off - leaving a rough inside surface on the end grain. It doesn't hurt anything but doesn't look good to me. The V cut method essentially eliminates that breaking off, leaving a nice even cut on the end grain.

Mike