A little bow

[Old-Biker-UK]

Small bow-saw made to take standard coping saw blades.
African Blackwood frame, Macassar Ebony handles, Bone, Steel & brass fittings.
The cord is a loop of 3/16" hard laid cod line, tricky to splice!

Mark

[IanW]

Pretty special,OB - is it a user or 'collector piece'? :U

I've made a few of these myself & very handy little saws they can be. I posted an 'improved' model (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f278/bowsaw-115150?highlight=coping) a few years ago. The thread has lost its pictures, unfortunately, but this was the saw: 430376

I had trouble with the handle wanting to pivot (which I 'fixed' by inserting an O-ring between the handle & frame) but someone immediately suggested the far more elegant solution, which is to put a slight taper on the brass shaft. I used it a lot for a while, but then I made a light-weight 10 inch model, with the requisite tapered shaft, which has rendered the coping model pretty well redundant. I also included a toggle for the lever to slide through, on this one: 430379

Wish I knew how to splice cord - it looks so much neater on yours!

Cheers,

[Bushmiller]

Mark

A very nice looking saw and with those materials, as Ian has inferred, almost too good to use.

Regards
Paul

[Bushmiller]

Ian

Both you and Mark have use square shoulders on the centre bar, but I notice that you have used a rounded shoulder on the centre pivot bar (I am calling it that as I have no idea as to what the name should be) to allow for the changing angle when the bow is tightened on your early saw.

And I have one of your saws that has square shoulders. The rounded style seems to me a good feature, but you did not continue it's use?

Regards
Paul

[auscab]

Very nice Mark !
Did you process the bone yourself ? Or buy it done ?
I did a bit of Cow bone processing and use it now and then in furniture .
Its nice stuff .
The workshop emptied of other guys when I started shaping it though . No one liked the smell much .

Rob

[IanW]

....I notice that you have used a rounded shoulder on the centre pivot bar (I am calling it that as I have no idea as to what the name should be) to allow for the changing angle when the bow is tightened on your early saw.

And I have one of your saws that has square shoulders. The rounded style seems to me a good feature, but you did not continue it's use? ....

Nothing escapes your eagle eye, Paul! :U

Actually, I don't know if the centre bar has a 'proper' name either. I often refer to it as the compression member, in view of its function. Whatever you call it, yep, it sometimes comes with rounded shoulders, sometimes square. Rounded is intuitively better, right? You can see in your mind's eye how the arms pivot nicely and smoothly as the cord is tensioned? Only in practice, it seems to make very little difference, & the 'square' shouldered bars seem to work just as well. The wood of the arms crushes a little and it all settles into a good working relationship after a few tensionings of the saw, The actual amount of travel between loose & tight is quite small at the fulcrum point.

But making the darn things is a right pita! For some reason, perhaps congenital stupidity on my part, I find it difficult to get the two shoulders meeting flawlessly on both sides, despite using carefully-made templates to set them out. On average, it takes me about 10 times as long to do a pair of rounded shoulders. So, given there is little or no advantage (on this size saw, it might well be more noticeable on a larger saw), I now only do them on a good day, and if specially requested... :D

Cheers,

[Simplicity]

Mark,
Thank you for turning tools back into tool art.
This is how tools should look.
Well done.

Cheers Matt

[Old-Biker-UK]

Ian - You are right about the handles swiveling, it works OK as an occasional user but I make stuff for the fun of it and this will probably end up in the cupboard with all my other stuff.
My 'go to' for scroll work is a Walker-Turner bench jigsaw where the only effort required is to fit a blade with the pins cut off, turn on the motor and keep to the line:)

Rob - The bone is from the local butcher, problem is he only gets bones from beef cattle, bred for meat not bones! what I could do with is some nice long pieces, camel, giraffe, that sort of thing but those animals are a bit thin on the ground here in Somerset. There is a bit about my preparation method here. (http://www.remark.me.uk/pages/hobbies/Curios/badger.html)

Mark