byo bowsaw tfww

[Robert Culver]

Hello again. Im interested in a bow saw. I see tools for working wood sells a kit. My question is has anybody done this and was it something an intermetiate wood wooker could do? Also they use Hickory for there saw I have seen others use hard maple. I have done some work with hickory and I know it is a bear to work. I wonder if there is that much more a benifit from using hickory.

[Marv Werner]

Robert,

Think axe handles or hammer handles. Maple is considered a hardwood, but it really isn't very hard, compared to say, Oak or Rosewood for example. Hickory isn't only hard, it's tough. A test could be done by supporting a 3ft. length of Hickory at each end, then measuring how many pounds applied to the center it would take to break it. Then do the same with Maple. With all things being equal, the Maple would break with less weight. I haven't actually done this test, so it's only conjecture on my part, but my money is on the Hickory.

Marv

[Andrew Gibson]

I made the kit, I had some scraps of soft maple laying around, so I made a frame from that. It has held up so far. I don't expect it to last for years and years. It was also my first so I figure when I get some hickory I will have had some good practice and be ready to make a frame I will be proud of.

Edit. haha my bowsaw is in my avatar... I forgot about that.

[Bob Easton]

The TFWW Gramercy bow saw is a very fine saw. I made mine using their plans and their pin ends, my own wood.

Instead of hickory, I used oak. I had oak on hand and used it. No regrets. It's plenty strong enough. The resulting saw is very light and an absolute delight to use.

Oh yeah, on difficulty of making .... You should have no difficulty making the frame. A spokeshave is a nice tool to use for shaping the curved parts, but not essential. A lathe is also nice for shaping the handles, but you can do just as well with octagonal shaped handles shaped with chisels.

It's a very fine saw that I use almost daily. more: http://www.bob-easton.com/blog/?p=255

[Andrae Covington]

The TFWW Gramercy bow saw is a very fine saw. I made mine using their plans and their pin ends, my own wood.

Instead of hickory, I used oak. I had oak on hand and used it. No regrets. It's plenty strong enough. The resulting saw is very light and an absolute delight to use.

Oh yeah, on difficulty of making .... You should have no difficulty making the frame. A spokeshave is a nice tool to use for shaping the curved parts, but not essential. A lathe is also nice for shaping the handles, but you can do just as well with octagonal shaped handles shaped with chisels.

It's a very fine saw that I use almost daily. more: http://www.bob-easton.com/blog/?p=255

I have been thinking about building one as well, so glad to see people's input on this thread. Nice to see the oak worked, as here in the northwest hickory/pecan doesn't exactly... uh... grow on trees... Although I must say my limited experience with oregon white oak is that it can also be pretty difficult to work with by hand, so may not be any easier than hickory.

I would think that ash would be a reasonable substitute as well.

[Steve Branam]

Here's my build of the TFWW saw: http://www.closegrain.com/2010/06/bu...y-bow-saw.html. It's easily within beginner/intermediate woodworker skills. While I turned the handles on a lathe, you could plane down squared blanks into octagons and hand-round them a bit from there (see Bob Smalser's posts on hand-rounded chisel handles in the FAQ). I haven't used it much yet, but it handles nicely.

I made it from Honduras rosewood, because, um, I got confused about what hickory looks like in my wood rack.

[Bob Jones]

I made one from walnut. It was easier than I thought it would be.

[Patrick Tipton]

Robert,

Think axe handles or hammer handles. Maple is considered a hardwood, but it really isn't very hard, compared to say, Oak or Rosewood for example. Hickory isn't only hard, it's tough. A test could be done by supporting a 3ft. length of Hickory at each end, then measuring how many pounds applied to the center it would take to break it. Then do the same with Maple. With all things being equal, the Maple would break with less weight. I haven't actually done this test, so it's only conjecture on my part, but my money is on the Hickory.

Marv

This is an interesting thread and it is motivating me to quit procrastinating and just build one. In looking at the construction notes, I am thinking a drawknife and shave horse will make pretty quick work of this project.

Marv, I did see your comments regarding strength of maple versus hickory and oak. Interestingly, hickory is the strongest hardwood, but only slightly more than white oak, ash and hard maple. Hard maple is slightly stronger than ash, about equal to white oak and significantly stronger than red oak. Even soft maple is quite strong, just not very hard and thus subject to denting. Take a look at this chart regarding relative strengths of North American hardwoods. http://workshopcompanion.com/KnowHow...d_Strength.htm

Regards, Patrick

[ray hampton]

the best wood for a bow saw is the same wood that we use
to build a hunting BOW since the wood perform the same
function

[Chris Vandiver]

the best wood for a bow saw is the same wood that we use
to build a hunting BOW since the wood perform the same
function

And that wood would be?

[David Weaver]

This is an interesting thread and it is motivating me to quit procrastinating and just build one. In looking at the construction notes, I am thinking a drawknife and shave horse will make pretty quick work of this project.

Marv, I did see your comments regarding strength of maple versus hickory and oak. Interestingly, hickory is the strongest hardwood, but only slightly more than white oak, ash and hard maple. Hard maple is slightly stronger than ash, about equal to white oak and significantly stronger than red oak. Even soft maple is quite strong, just not very hard and thus subject to denting. Take a look at this chart regarding relative strengths of North American hardwoods. http://workshopcompanion.com/KnowHow...d_Strength.htm

Regards, Patrick

Marv might be talking about bigleaf maple.

Funny enough, since ash was brought into this, I have a book - might be one of the WPINCA books - that mentions ash is very hard but not preferable for benches and tools because it becomes brittle with age. If that's true, then it might be a bad choice for a big bowsaw.

[David Weaver]

And that wood would be?

I'm putting in a pre-guess of osage.

I've heard of that, maple, and birch being laminated into bows. There's probably plenty more, but I've never had a bow that didn't have wheels on the end of it.

[Steve Branam]

Except that a bow for arrows, whether compound or single pull, needs to be flexible with a lot of spring return, whereas a bow saw needs to be rigid to tension the blade! Now, a bow for a spring lathe would be a good candidate for an archery bow...

Also, I'm just guessing here, but I'd say that because the TFWW saw blades are light gauge (basically just long coping saw blades), if you put enough tension on the saw to damage the wood, you're just as likely to have the metal break first. With the exception of a wood that becomes brittle, I would expect that any strong, rigid wood would be fine.

Larger bowsaws, especially using the larger German blades, are a different story. There you have a much heavier piece of metal; the wood will fail long before the metal.

[Tom Vanzant]

The wood species traditionally used by the English for long bows is yew.

[Peter Cobb]

the best wood for a bow saw is the same wood that we use
to build a hunting BOW since the wood perform the same
function

Disagree slightly as a hunting bow stores and releases energy quickly with as little as 30 lbs pull for a light one, and should be stored without tension. A bow saw tensions a blade / web with as little distortion as possible and hopefully never releases it under force.

The requirements are different and the specs for the wood should be so also (no doubt adjusting the scantlings would compensate).

Cheers,
Peter