This fancy little bowsaw is an elegant replacement for my hardware-store coping saw. It may be more accurately called a turning saw. As I understand it, turning saws are slightly larger than coping saws. This little saw takes standard coping saw blades, so I’m sticking with “coping saw”. Whatever you call it, make one. It is an awesome little saw and I never tire of using it!
Several years ago I took a class at the Woodwright’s School in Pittsboro, North Carolina and learned how to make a bow saw. The class was delivered by Bill Anderson, a recognized authority on bow saws among other things. I came home with a lovely bow saw, with a blade roughly 18” in length that functions nicely for what it is. Someday I will put a finer blade on it because the blade we received in class is too rough for my taste. I enjoyed making the saw and I like having a fine, handmade bow saw in my shop, but if I’m honest, I never use it. The blade is too rough and I have a bandsaw that cuts better and is easier to use.
Nevertheless, taking the class turned me into a competent maker of bow saws, and so it should not come as a surprise that when I was cussing my coping saw for being too flexible, it occurred to me to make a coping-sized bow saw. It’s the perfect type of project for when one finds oneself blessed with a weekend without anything in particular to do.
Even though I had the skills to make a saw, and the hardware (harvested from a humble Robert Larson coping saw), it still occurred to me that buying a fancy coping or fret saw might be the smarter option. If you haven’t lusted after those spacy looking Knew Concepts red anodized aluminum hotrod saws that cost $100, you must not have the same tool DNA as me. But I decided to invest time rather than money, and the die was set. The challenge would be to have a saw that worked as well as the finest saw money can buy, for free.
Making a bow saw of any size or shape is pretty much the same. Four pieces of wood, a blade, some twine and a few pieces of hardware is all that is involved. Here is my entire materials list:
Wood scrap, roughly 1X2X20, of a dense, hard wood like oak, ash, hickory etc.
Blade holding pins harvested from Robert Larson saw (now discarded)
2 bolts, 3” long, with smooth shanks for at least 1 1/2” (I used ¼-20 threaded bolts)
Coping saw blade (I like Craftsman fine blades- they’re cheap and cut like a furious beaver)
About 2’ of jute twine
The process is basically this. You make two main bits that form the vertical ends. Then you make a cross member that acts as a fulcrum at both ends. Keep a little scrap about the size of a tongue depressor to make a windlass. Get everything rough cut and squared up. Cut the joinery. Make the hardware. Cut the cross member to length and make the tenons. Shape the parts. Assemble. Apply finish if desired. Use.
First, determine the size of the saw and rough out the ends and cross member. My finished ends and my cross member are both about 8” long, but you’ll want to start with longer pieces. If I make this saw again, I’ll make the end pieces an inch longer so I can get all 4 fingers between the blade and cross member.
Joinery on the end pieces is next and should precede any shaping. You’ll want to cut joinery on square stock. There are two important joinery tasks. The most intensive is the mortises where the tenons on the cross piece fit into the ends. These joints must act as a hinge so winding the windlass tensions the blade. Great care is warranted here so that your end pieces are held in parallel when the saw is in use. The tenons need to move up and down in their mortises, but not side to side. Furthermore, the mortises need to be centered and vertically oriented on the end pieces. This is a good place to spend some extra time to get good, tight hinge action.
Placement of the mortises relative to the top and bottom of the saw is important. I position the horizontal piece on the end pieces by eye and instinct. I want the horizontal piece to be somewhat closer to the winding cord than the blade to moderate tension on the blade. The end pieces are levers, hinged on the cross member. Where you place the horizontal member relative to the blade and the winding cord determines the leverage available to tension the blade when winding the cord. A saw with long ends and a cross member positioned close to the blade will be difficult to tension without breaking the blade due to excessive leverage. If there is a science to this, I don’t know it. Based on the antique bow saws I examined and on my own experience, I set my horizontal cross member closer than midway to the cord by a distance sufficient to moderate the leverage of the windlass. For example, if I were to make a saw with 12” from the blade to the cord, I’d cut my mortises about 7” from the blade (5” from the cord). I eyeball that ratio on saws of different sizes. The center of my mortises is 3 ½” from the blade and 2 ¾” from the cord. Another consideration when determining the distance from the blade to the cross member is clearance of stock when cutting. The closer the cross member to the blade, the less cutting capacity you have.
My mortises are 3/16” wide, 1/2” long and 1/2” deep, created with a 3/16” brad point bit on a drill press. Multiple stabs were needed to clean out the mortises until the bit would slide from end to end, and a fence kept all the holes in a row. No chiseling necessary. The finished dimension of my cross member is 5/8” by 3/8”, so a tenon cut to 3/16” by 1/2” leaves four nice shoulders
The next bit of joinery is the holes where the blade hardware attaches. I deviated from tradition here, eliminating the tapered pins and handles. For a saw this small, I think it’s easier to hold it by the frame. I kept this in mind when determining the distance from the blade hardware to the fulcrum mortises, making sure there was room for my hand. I also opted for a non-traditional attachment method. I simply drilled and tapped the wood to accept a ¼-20 bolt. I cut threads in the wood for about an inch, and they are more than amply strong to take the stresses they will endure. The blade will snap before the threads strip. Drill a 7/32” hole (preferable on a drill press for accuracy) as deep as you want your threads to go, then tap the hole with a ¼-20 tap. If you’ve never tapped wood before, you will be delighted to learn how easy it is and how strong the threads are. Go slow and reverse often to clear your tap’s flutes. If you’re like me, you’ll find many opportunities to use this technique on other projects.
There is one more bit of joinery that isn’t really joinery at all, and which is undertaken later at the shaping stage. The top of your end pieces need some kind of groove to hold the jute twine. A simple notch is more than sufficient. I like to think of my handmade tools as heirlooms, so I go a little overboard. I also find it inspiring to use excellent tools, so whatever time and effort I put into making my tools special comes back to me in pleasure of use. The end pieces of a bow saw are a wonderful opportunity to off-gas some creative energy, and the tops are veritable magnets for special treatment. Knock yourself out. Or not. A shallow nock will do.
Make your hardware next. There are two bits of hardware I didn’t feel comfortable making, and they are the two slotted pins that hold the blade. The slots are too narrow for anything I have that will cut metal, and they need to be flared or tapered to hold the pins on the blade. I took a short cut and harvested these two small pins from the coping saw I replaced. They were held in place by friction and it was a simple matter to tap them free.
The goal is to drill holes in the shanks of two ¼-20 bolts for the blade-holding pins, then cut off the heads and screw the bolts into the threaded holes you cut in the saw ends. Here’s how I did it. First, don’t cut off the bolt heads until you’ve drilled the holes. Second, mic out the pins to determine the size hole to drill- you want it to fit tight. Mine were 1/8”, so I drilled 1/8” holes. To keep the drill bit from wandering, I filed a small flat spot on the bolt. Then I took a small block of wood, maybe 3” square and ¾” thick, and cut a groove across it just shy of ¼” wide. I set my bolt in the groove with the flat spot on top and held it steady with a box-end wrench. Eyeballing the drill bit to the center of the bolt and using a bit of oil, I was able to drill holes dead center. I wasted two bolts before I produced two centered holes. Bolts are cheap. Keep trying until you get it right. You’ll find you can sort of steer the drill bit from side to side with the wrench, but take care not to wallow out the hole. One of my holes was a little loose, but a quick peening with a punch secured the pin in the hole and saved having to drill another bolt.
When you have two bolts with holes centered and tight-fitting pins, cut off the bolt heads a short distance from the holes. Mine are about ¼” and that looks good to my eye. I chucked the bolts in a drill and used a series of files and sandpaper to make the bolts look like specialty hardware milled specifically for a coping saw. You may prefer to knock off the burrs and move on.
Now it is time to cut the cross member to length. Insert the pins into the end pieces. Laying everything flat on your bench, install a coping saw blade and adjust the end pieces so they are roughly square to the blade. This reveals the distance between the end pieces with a blade in the saw. Set your cross member on top of the end pieces, and with enough material on each end for tenons, mark the distance between the ends. No measuring needed.
I cut my tenons using a stop block on my crosscut sled, nibbling across the shoulders and cheeks. Choose your preferred method. The goal is a sweet fitting tenon that doesn’t leave any side-to-side waggle or slop.
Shaping is next, and here is where you are let go to run free. You can leave your saw square, make it round, or any combination thereof. My shape is fairly traditional while also pretty fancy. I’ve never carved scrolls, so I tried my hand at it and I’m happy with the outcome. All that really matters in the shaping is that the ends have a place to hold the winding cord, that the saw feels good in your hand, and that you like it.
The last bit to make is the windlass. I like a smooth, straight windlass so I can slide it through the wound cord to catch the cross member rather than twisting it to one side to clear and then catch the cross member.
For the cord, jute is typical, simple, effective and cheap. I am hard pressed to deviate from tradition because it cannot be topped. There is no glue or other anchor on the cord. For a saw this small, two loops around the ends is sufficient. Cut the cord to length by laying the saw flat on the bench. Put the cut end of the cord near one end. Loop the cord around the ends and cut the cord near the opposite end from where you began. You’ll have 6 cords between the ends with two cords going around each of the saw ends (4 cords form loops and two cords are loose ends). Lace the loose lengths of cords in and out of the 2 cords forming the loop on the same side as the loose length. Tension will lock the loose ends into the looped cords and form a strong, clean, adjustable winding cord. Insert the windlass between the looped cords and wind it to tension the blade.
Experiment with blade tension, taking care not to break the saw ends. It doesn’t take long to get a feel for how much tension is too much. I over-tensioned my saw to see what would happen, and it was the jute cord that gave way first. If you need more tension than the cord provides, just add another loop. Whatever you do, you’ll want the cord or the blade to give up before the saw breaks (with your heart).
Good luck with this project, and enjoy one of the finest coping saws available at any price.