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Thread: Which wood for bowsaw build

  1. #1
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    Which wood for bowsaw build

    I will be building a 12" bowsaw using the Gramercy kit. The instructions suggest hickory but I don't have any and have not seen it at my lumber yard. I do have plenty of hard maple, cherry and walnut. Would any of these be appropriate?

  2. #2
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    While not an expert, something with a little ' spring ' would be better.
    Osage Orange, Ash, and, the one I and at least one other Creeker used, Yew all fall into that category.
    Of the ones you listed, I imagine the Maple would be best.
    Good luck, it is a fun build.

  3. #3
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    You could use any of the three you listed. You could use oak as well. I think I would use maple, out of the ones you listed..

  4. #4
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    Frank
    I just bought .75 x 5.5 wide x 6 foot long Hickory from our Menards 2 months ago. I realize not all Menards are the same but I live out in the sticks. So you might want to check them out. They have a small section of hardwood in the indoor lumber department.
    Chet

  5. #5
    I would use maple from what you listed. Beech and ash are also good choices.

  6. #6
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    WoodJoy makes some of the best bowsaws I have seen or used and Glenn uses hard maple. You might check out the WoodJoy bowsaws. I love the tensioning mechanism Glenn uses, works much better than anything else I have tried. WoodJoy also sells some bowsaw parts.

  7. #7
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    I made one out of maple and it broke. The replacement will be quarter sawn white oak.

  8. #8
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    I had to rebuild one of my turning saw arms, and from what I can tell, grain direction and selection is more important than wood type as long as you aren't wildly off base.

  9. #9
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    Sounds like maple is a good option for my first bow saw build. I checked out the Woodjoy saw, it is bigger than the Gramercy, which is closer to a coping saw. After this one, I may tackle the Woodjoy one from the parts...

  10. #10
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    Sounds like a good plan Frank. I have the Gramercy and the 14" WoodJoy bowsaws and find them both useful. The Gramercy is great at small work like a coping saw, down to dovetails. The WoodJoy saw is great for just about any more gradual, curved cut. The Japanese turbo-cut blades are very nice. They cut fast and the very hard steel lasts well too. Instead of fooling with sharpening teeth you can just replace the blade when it finally wears out. I like the pull cut blades on my WoodJoy bowsaw. I have the Universal and the Jigging blade. The Universal blade works great on Xcuts or rips for small to medium pieces. Maybe I will make a 600mm rip bowsaw one of these days.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Holbrook View Post
    Sounds like a good plan Frank. I have the Gramercy and the 14" WoodJoy bowsaws and find them both useful. The Gramercy is great at small work like a coping saw, down to dovetails. The WoodJoy saw is great for just about any more gradual, curved cut. The Japanese turbo-cut blades are very nice. They cut fast and the very hard steel lasts well too. Instead of fooling with sharpening teeth you can just replace the blade when it finally wears out. I like the pull cut blades on my WoodJoy bowsaw. I have the Universal and the Jigging blade. The Universal blade works great on Xcuts or rips for small to medium pieces. Maybe I will make a 600mm rip bowsaw one of these days.
    Good to hear you have and like both. I did not know about the Woodjoy until this thread and great to hear it is a good one. I decided to go down this path as a supplement to power tools. I have an 18" Italian bandsaw but sometimes hand tools are just quicker and easier for smaller tasks.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Joshua Pierce View Post
    I had to rebuild one of my turning saw arms, and from what I can tell, grain direction and selection is more important than wood type as long as you aren't wildly off base.
    Same here (broke a couple of arms), I agree about grain direction and selection, both had grain that while not short ran in the direction of greatest stress. The last one I made out of Beech and so far it's holding up.

  13. #13
    I have made mine up with hickory arms, let's call them, and an ash strut, twixt the arms. I have always found this saw awkward in use tending to tip left or right, to me an indication of an overly high - in relation to the cutting edge - center of gravity. My design was taken from the similar size saw from Ulmia with arms, I know, of beech but here's the point, the strut twixt these arms is from Spanish cedar, so extremely light weight, very cleaver composition.

  14. #14
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    Frank, I am working on getting my Laguna 14SUV bandsaw back operational. I had some help moving it downstairs from my garage and it has had issues since. I am rebuilding a cabinet and was altering between my Festool saw for the long cuts and a Half-Back, made from a Wenzloff kit, for the smaller cuts. I will make the smaller cuts today with my Bowsaw. I had help yesterday and did not want to stop to switch out the bowsaw jigging blade so I just grabbed the the closest saw.

    I bought a bawsaw from Highland Woodworking (it was Highland Hardware back then) after attending a Tage Frid class. Tage was a major advocate for bowsaws, probably due to the similar early education he and Frank Klausz, another bowsaw advocate, had. I hated it! The blade was junk, the frame flexed, the tensioning system was horrible and there was no good place to grip it. Highland Woodworking sells much better bowsaws now and even stocks Turbo bowsaw blades, though Glenn still makes the best saw in my humble opinion (IMHO). I have enjoyed the Gramercy and WoodJoy saws from the first time I used them. The Gramercy saw needs a little work on sharp edges, when bought new.

    Some people find bowsaws harder to use, I suspect the reason often is that they have not tried a good one. I did not build my saws because I wanted to make sure I was using the real deal after my early negative experience. Now I suspect someone with good joinery skills can build a very good saw and hope to make one or two myself one day. Maybe when I split out pieces for chair spindles\backs I will place a few aside to make a bowsaw from. Wood split from straight grain logs should have the grain orientation and flex required. Once I get my Kiln made I should be able to dry green wood on the PDQ.
    Last edited by Mike Holbrook; 10-17-2014 at 10:36 AM.

  15. #15
    I'm not afraid to say my saw is a pretty good quality example with a good blade out of Japan with that kind of tooth configuration, but maybe hickory is weightier than beech, the ash definitely a heavy substitute for the cedar, all tolled I come to the conclusion they add up to a clumsy tool which I don't grab for often anymore but use as a kind of workhorse. Don't get me wrong, when I cut firewood I use the actual bow saw.
    Last edited by ernest dubois; 10-17-2014 at 12:03 PM.

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