Bandsaw replacement

Hi all,

Ive almost finish my bench so getting ready to start my first real project.

I was thinking of doing the small table that Steve Hay takes people through on his season 1 of woodworking masterclass (youtube).

The issue is that i don't have a bandsaw
What handsaw would be a replacement?

The part it would be needed for would be for making the four cabriolet legs out of 3x3 timber.

Would a good quality fret saw cut it (no pun intended), or would i need a frame saw (such as the gramarcy kit I've seen online).

Any advice would be most welcome.

Adam

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By "frame saw" I suspect you mean "bow saw"?? A frame saw has a fixed blade, so you'd need to get/make one with enough clearance either side of the blade to cut the curves down a cabriole leg. A bow or 'turning' saw is more appropriate because you can simply twist the blade as you progress through the cut so that the frame of the saw can clear the work-piece.

If I didn't have a bandsaw, I'd use my 12" bowsaw for this job, but if you have neither bandsaw nor bowsaw, there is a way to get the job done with an ordinary straight-cutting backsaw: Mark out the curves to be cut, then make a series of perpendicular cuts down to the line through the waste. The spacing of these cuts will vary depending on how tough your wood is, but something like 5-10mm would be a good starting point. Once you have made all the cuts, just knock the waste bits off with a chisel, then clean up with rasps &/or spokeshave. I would make my cuts to no closer than 2 or 3mm from the lines, because there is always a risk of pieces splitting out a bit deeper than you want, with the grain changing constantly along your cut-lines. It means a bit more work cleaning up to your layout lines, but is safer..

Tip: when bandsawing a cabriole leg, you usually saw one side, then tape the waste back in place so you can saw the other side. With the above method, make all the necessary cuts before knocking off any waste - makes it much easier to hold the leg blank in the vise.

Cabriole legs are awkward things to hold while you get to work on the hand-shaping. A method that is commonly advocated is to put a bar clamp in your front-vise, & put the leg in the bar clamp....

Cheers,