Thread: New Concepts Fretsaw - reviewed

Any idea on when the saw will be available to the public and at what price? I have been eying some kind of piercing, jewelry saw for some time.

Hi Derek,

I ended up buying an 8" aluminium fretsaw from Knew Concepts and found it nice and light to use.

The blade that comes with it is something like 38 TPI which is pretty fine for cutting wood, to stop the teeth filling with sawdust you would need to be cutting dovetails in timber about 2mm thick.

As you would expect from a saw blade about the same size as fuse wire I broke the blade. When looking for a courser blade the folks at Koodak offered this table Jeweler Saw Blade Specifications : Sizes and Recommended Material Thicknesses
It looked that the best I was going to get was a number 8 @ 28 TPI but all I could find was the number 6 @ 33 TPI.
I also found that these blades are sold by the Gross (144) so I guess I am not alone in breaking the odd blade (and you can buy a gross for about $16)

I am interested to know what blades you find best and where you get them from.

I have recently lucked upon some 6mm brass so the fretsaw should come in handy for cutting dovetails when making planes etc.

Regards from Geraldton,
Chris

Cutting out the dovetails on a wide board??

According to Robert Ingham, you just do this:

Originally Posted by Mr Brush

According to Robert Ingham, you just do this:

Ian Guthridge was shown the same thing George Ingham. Ian and I were talking about this very solution last Friday. The problem is that it can only be done a rather light weight frames. You could cut the frame in half, miter the edges and solder them back together. However that would be a pain.

When you have as much meat on the frame as that New Concepts saw, surely it wouldn't be hard to incorporate precision pin pivots at the bend location in the above photo?

Then you could have the frame straight for standard work, but with the ability to induce a 'bend' when required.

The frames are lightweight enough. Bending one would reduce stability even more.

Rather than bending the frame, one can bend the blade. Simply twist it at 45 degrees with a visegrip. Some do this and it works for them.

Let me emphasise that this fretsaw is just a better fretsaw than those available. All fretsaws work nevertheless. It is just up to you whether you prefer to use a something that is "acceptable" and something that is "superior". It is no different with handplanes and handsaws.

The Knew Concepts comes with straight blade attachments as standard. The 45 degree attachment is new and should be available as an extra. Everything is retrofittable.

Chris, I'll get back to about blades. I have tended to use 18 tpi Eclipse (from Bunnings) but there are better blades around, and they are quite cheap.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Hi Derek,

Another informative write-up. Well done.

Cheers
Pops

Would you only consider fret saws when used in conjunction with western dovetail saws as opposed to Japanese dovetail saws, which usually have a narrower kerf of around 0.3mm? I would imagine, using very fine blades would leed to slow cutting and a lot of breakages.
Zelk

Hi Zelk,

When cutting dovetails the first cuts from the end can be done with either a western and Japanese saw. The issue is when cutting out the pieces between the cuts, for this you need a saw that will fit down the kerf and allow you to turn the blade 90 degrees and remove the section of wood, an alternative is to remove this wood with chisels only.

A fretsaw does not replace either a western or Japanese saw.
A fretsaw also lacks the control to give nice straight cuts that you can easily achieve with a western or Japanese saw.

Regards from Geraldton,
Chris

zelk - I have the Carbatec jewellers saw, and chose the blades to match the kerf of my finest Jap saw (0.3mm)

I use the No. 2 blade which is 0.012" thick (0.029" wide) 20 tpi.

Great for sawing out dovetails in typical box-making timber thicknesses (10-12mm), but might be hard going in thicker timber. Also leaves a very nice surface finish, and is very easy to control in the cut.

Haven't broken one yet (touch....er, wood)

Originally Posted by Mr Brush

zelk - I have the Carbatec jewellers saw, and chose the blades to match the kerf of my finest Jap saw (0.3mm)

I use the No. 2 blade which is 0.012" thick (0.029" wide) 20 tpi.

Great for sawing out dovetails in typical box-making timber thicknesses (10-12mm), but might be hard going in thicker timber. Also leaves a very nice surface finish, and is very easy to control in the cut.

Haven't broken one yet (touch....er, wood)

That's what I thought, with thicker timber a coping saw may be better.

As a thought, removal of waste can be approached a different way particularly with thicker boards and using a thicker coping saw blade. Drill a hole larger than the width of the coping saw blade centrally at the base of the waste section. Cut into the drill hole with the coping saw from the top and then from there cut horizontally to the bottom corners to finally remove the waste, if you know what I mean ( probably done before)
Zelk