PDA

View Full Version : Stair saw



Arron
17th June 2004, 10:15 AM
I was browsing a web site and came across a picture of a stair saw. This is one of those wonderful old tools that seems to be just about forgotten.

With my brain firmly out of gear, I decided a scaled down version would be just the thing for cutting dovetails and tenon shoulders so I made this one. When using a tenon saw I can usually follow a line OK, but I often cut the lines just a little too deep, or too shallow, or end up with a kind of hillock in the bottom of the cut. The fence saw gets over this problem as the bottom of the saw back acts as a fence controlling the depth of the cut.

In reality its use for dovetails proved to be somewhat limited because the blade of the saw is obscured by the body when you begin the cut. Also, I had overlooked the fact that the tails are cut on a slant, so the effectiveness of the fence is limited.

Arron
17th June 2004, 10:16 AM
This is still a very handy tool though, especially if you overcome the visibility thing by starting the cut with another saw of roughly the same kerf. As an example, I was making this small block plane and wanted to rebate in a sole of a harder material. After trying for ages to get my piece of rubbish triton router table set up and doing the job accurately I gave up and used the stair saw and a stanley no 71 (hand router). I know if I had tried to do this with a regular tenon saw at least one of those dado edges would have one of those annoying little nicks where the tenon saw travelled too deeply.

Plane body is walnut, sole is European ash (poor choice). Stair saw is beech wood with a salvaged tenon saw blade.

Arron

Phil Jennings
17th June 2004, 05:25 PM
Hey Arron,
you're creativity and workmanship is an inspiration!
By the way how did you vote on the grooved timber decking poll - Up or Down ?
Cheerio
Phil

journeyman Mick
17th June 2004, 10:32 PM
Arron,
great work as usual! Maybe you need to make another specifically for dovetails with the bottom bevelled to the correct angle (or maybe two, one for dovetails in hardwood, one in softwood :D )

Mick