After requests from several readers, here is a short video showing how I teach beginning sawyers how to cut pins.
Some things to understand before watching this video.
1. We gang-cut the tails first and then transferred the shape of the tails onto the pin boards.
2. The joint shown is a single tail and pin, which is used to join an upper skirt at the top of a tool chest.
3. If you think a single tail/pin is easy, I would argue the opposite. I’d rather cut a row of 10 dovetails than a joint with just one.
4. This joint was cut the first thing in the morning after drinking five beers at the Dogfish Head Alehouse in Gaithersburg, Md. In other words, my head hurts, I’m not warmed up and the joint still came out perfect.
I did not develop this sawing technique, obviously. It’s pretty similar to how you saw a tenon. First you focus on the end grain. Then you focus on the face grain, dropping the saw handle. Then you use the established kerf to guide the rest of the cut.
I think this technique works. It’s slower than some methods, but it builds good sawing habits and doesn’t involve any extra jigs or doo-dads. It just makes the sawing a little more deliberate.
This crazy-looking saw till was on sale at the American College of the Building Arts yesterday, and I really want to build one without the wild paint job.
The tool dealer who was selling the till said he found it in Kentucky. The sides of the case tops are made from old cheese boxes. The back, he said, might have been salvaged from some leftover circus or carnival scrap, which could explain the paint.
The functional aspect of the till is an old idea: You slide the toe of the sawblade into the slot. A rubber-covered ring gets pushed to the side. As you let go of the saw, the ring drops down and wedges the saw plate in place. To remove the saw you push the blade up and pull it toward you. Nifty.
This week I’m working on a magazine article on coping saws and I’d like to include a few paragraphs about its ancestors and the development of the saw.
My view is that the modern coping saw is related to the marquetry saws of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. A metal frame that tensions a thin blade has been a part of woodworking for about 500 years. However, if you have any evidence that I’m off base (evidence and not speculation, please, I get enough of the former), I’d like to hear from you.
Here is the rough draft of this short section. And thanks in advance!
— Christopher Schwarz
A Quick History of Coping Saws
While frame saws likely were invented by the Romans, it wasn’t until veneered marquetry was developed in the 16th century that the delicate bow saws required for the intricate work appeared.
In 1676, André Félibien published a drawing of a petite sie de marqueterie that looks all the world like a modern coping saw – you can even see that the teeth point away from the handle.
By the 18th century, these sorts of saws were sometimes called “Morris saws” – perhaps it was a bastardization of the word “Moorish” or relates to the inlaid game board for an old game called “Nine Men’s Morris.” These saws were used for all sorts of intricate cuts, both by cabinetmakers and jewelers. And the saws had blades designed to cut not only wood, but tortoise shell, brass and other semi-precious materials.
In the 19th century, the saws were commonly called “bracket saws,” and during the middle part of the century there developed quite a fretwork craze – you find advertisements for the saws and plans in publications that have nothing to do with woodwork, such as The Pacific Tourist and Beautiful Homes magazines.
Soon the saws spread to the schools, where 19th-century craft-based schools using the Sloyd system taught handwork that was based around using a knife, a “frame compass saw” and other simple tools. By the early 20th century, the saw had acquired its modern name, “coping saw,” as carpenters found the tool handy for coping inside miters when cutting moulding.
Historical purists might not agree that the coping saw is a descendant of the early marquetry saw, but from a user’s perspective these saws are functional equivalents: a metal frame that tensions a thin blade that is used for curved and intricate cuts.
The unlimited field which is open to inventors, and the boundless fertility of ideas which is constantly busy in filling this field, are both strikingly illustrated in the invention here represented. In working wood by carpenters and others, a great deal of labor is expended in sawing boards lengthwise—“ripping” them, as it is called—and this work requires not only a true eye and hand, but a certain measure of skill which is the result of long training. By this machine, the operation is performed by any boy, however inexperienced, or any workman, however unskillful. (more…)
This is a New Zealand saw fitting shop. Mr. Fraser surely seems to have a pretty complete assortment, and it is interesting to note from his letter that Disston Saws are in almost universal use in New Zealand.
Henry Disston & Sons, Inc., 238 St. Asaph St.,
Philadelphia, Pa. Christchurch, N.Z.
Gentlemen:
I have forwarded you a photo which no doubt will be of interest, being a saw repair shop in New Zealand, and shows that over ninety per cent. of the saws in use here are Disstons, and with my sixteen years experience as a saw expert, with Mr. S. Frasee, whose photo is shown, but now has returned after over fifty years both working and repairing saws.
We are both of the same opinion that Disston Saws excel all others.
Wishing you continuous success, I remain,
Yours, etc.
Robert J. Fraser.
