Bow saw advice?

[Michael Ray Smith]

I've become curious about bow saws, and I just bought the Gramercy hardware to make one. For my first one, I thought I'd stick pretty close to the Gramercy plans, following the recommendation to use hickory. But first, does anyone have any tips or advice that might not be obvious? Or even if it is -- I've been known to overlook the obvious before. Is there a better choice than hickory?

Second, assuming this effort goes okay, I think I might try a larger saw with a wider blade suitable for ripping. But I'm not sure where to get a blade that would work. And I don't really relish the idea of cutting up the plate from an old handsaw ripper.

Thanks.

[eric mah]

It's a nice kit. I built one a couple years back. My only advice is not to over tighten the string. There is a lot of tension on the ends and they could break. Don't ask how I know this.

[Lloyd Robins]

You might look at Woodjoy ( http://shop.woodjoytools.com/categor...?categoryId=10 ) and Highland ( http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/b...ws-blades.aspx ). Quality bow saw blades for larger bow saws seem to be few and far between right now. It is kind of like western back saws a few years ago. There are several people who will hopefully chime in with instructions on how to make your own. Bow saws are fun to work with, so good luck. (I love my Gramercy bow saw.)

[Chris Griggs]

Its a very nice kit and plan indeed. Surprisingly simple to make too. Mine is made out of pacific yew. I made another for a friend out of white oak. I've seen ones posted here in pear, in walnut, and in maple. Hickory is structurally probably the best choice, but there are any number of options.

[Adam Cherubini]

My advice:
Tho Joel vehemently defends hickory, it's atraditional and a poor choice for this application. These frames see bending (shear parallel to the long grain) and need cross grain properties. Marples made similar saws out of beech, which has fantastic x-grain properties. I think beech has the BEST x-grain properties of any domestic hardwood which makes it excellent for lots of tool related applications. Either maple or cherry would be good choices, attractive and strong. Several builders have reported cracking their finely made bow saw frames. Joel very carefully makes his and doesn't have problems. It could also be user error either in over tightening or in poor wood choice or frame shaping (removing too many long fibers).

I don't recommend using bow saws for ripping beyond tenons. 18" blades used to be available from highland hardware and may still be. I used one of these for several years as a tenon saw. They work just fine and offer a few performance advantages over back saws. Just fix the blade in the frame. I simply slit the lower arms and used a wrought nail to hold the blade.

[Tony Shea]

I've made one from this kit out of Pear wood and have had zero issue's with breakage. I don't see any obvious signs of breakage in the near future either and am happy with its' performance, in terms of the wood. My one complaint is the straight blade pins. They seem to rotate while in use too easily no matter how tight you get the tension. I think a tapered pin would be ideal for this application and believe they are offered by someone online. Just do a search if interested as I don't remember exactly where. I think this small change would make a huge difference in ease of use. But the saw is really a nice saw once you learn to deal with this issue in use.

[Michael Ray Smith]

Thank you, gentlepersons. As someone just trying to learn the basics of working wood with handtools, I'm grateful that so many experienced craftsmen and artisans are so generous with their advice. I don't take it for granted.

[Mark Dorman]

You can check out how Steve Branam did it here. http://www.closegrain.com/2010/06/bu...w-saw.html?m=1 It's a good read with lots of tips.

[Tony Wilkins]

I'm looking forward to making one the one that Bill Anderson built on The Woodwright's Shop last season. He sells the pins and I believe he'll send the plans with them. Beautiful tool that looks well thought out. If I hadn't seen that one, I was seriously considering one from Chester Tool Works.

[Adam Cherubini]

Tony, try putting a rubber o-ring over the near pin, so that it's trapped between handle and frame to increase friction there.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

That's similar to what I did - I put a rubber washer over the pin and it helps tremendously with keeping down unwanted rotation. I can still see how the tapered pins that Bill Anderson sells would be helpful, though.

The other thing that helps is drilling your holes cleanly and sized right. I used an auger bit that drills just undersized enough that the pin fits in the hole with some friction. Another 1/4" bit I have drills a hole with more clearance, and left things a little too loose feeling.

The difference between these two holes was astounding, although eventually I'm sure the slightly tighter hole will work a bit looser, (Which again is where the tapered pins would be handy) but I'm not sure I use the saw enough for this to be a problem for a long while. I'll see. I learned the difference as I had to remake one of my arms after it cracked.

The lesson from the cracked arm is that grain orientation really helps, particularly if you want to make the arms lighter and thinner. My original arm was closer to flatsawn wood, and cracked along the grain lines. The new arm feels stouter as I tighten things up.

I need to replace the cord on my saw at some point, and that's another place that feels like it can use some attention - I was using a fairly thick twine with a lot of wraps at first - it works well, but because of the amount of material being twisted around, dialing in the tension is tough - each full twist puts a lot of tension on the arm - with thinner cord, or less wraps, I feel like I get a little less tension with each twist. With so much tension being added with each twist, sometimes I was getting at a point where it was too loose, but adding another twist made it too taught. Not careful there, and the arm snapped.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Made out of yellow birch, before and after the arm replacement. Sort of followed Bill Andersons plans, but used the Gramercy hardware and handles. Still need to pretty it up; there's a lot of final tweaking to do to make it purty, and a fair amount of tool marks to remove. That second arm I knocked out really darn quick, though. Both times, it was a project I knocked out really quick to get back to work, and keep planning on nicing it up. Really nice easy project to put together though. Almost all of it was done with a single saw, a single gouge, and two chisels, a mortise chisel and a 40mm bench chisel.

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[Jason Coen]

I need to replace the cord on my saw at some point, and that's another place that feels like it can use some attention - I was using a fairly thick twine with a lot of wraps at first - it works well, but because of the amount of material being twisted around, dialing in the tension is tough - each full twist puts a lot of tension on the arm - with thinner cord, or less wraps, I feel like I get a little less tension with each twist. With so much tension being added with each twist, sometimes I was getting at a point where it was too loose, but adding another twist made it too taught. Not careful there, and the arm snapped.

I noticed the same thing when I originally strung my saw with thick twine. Didn't like the tension adjustment, so I re-strung it with 80 lb. test Spiderwire. Certainly not traditional in the materials selection department, but traditional enough in the sense that I used what I had on hand that best fit the application.

And Bill's pins are VERY nice. Nice enough that I need to get a set from him and make another saw.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

They're actually cheaper than I thought they were, for some reason. Still more than the Gramercy pins, but I may have to pick up a pair. Of course, I'll have to figure out how to make a nice handle for those.

[Michael Ray Smith]

I noticed the same thing when I originally strung my saw with thick twine. Didn't like the tension adjustment, so I re-strung it with 80 lb. test Spiderwire. Certainly not traditional in the materials selection department, but traditional enough in the sense that I used what I had on hand that best fit the application.

I haven't started mine yet. I'm still taking into consideration all the comments here and deciding whether I'm going to join the pro-hickory or the anti-hickory camp. In meantime, I rounded up a length of hemp cord that I was going to use in the spirit of being traditional. (Of course, the Gramercy hardware and the blades aren't exactly authentic reproductions of 18th century technology anyway, so I don't know why I'm trying to be such a purist on the string!) I'm considering whether to switch to something smaller like braided fishing line or to use the hemp with fewer wrappings. Do you think you'd have the same problem with the one-more-turn-is-not-enough-two-are-too-many problem with only a couple of wrappings of thicker cord? I'm actually not so sure that I want something really strong. Ideally, I suppose, the cord would break just before the arm does.