All About Frame Saws and Bow Saws

hey y'all I'm James Wright and welcome to my shop today I want to talk about frame saws and bow saws what are they what are the different types how are they used and where can you get some of the things for it it's a lot of information to cover but we're gonna try and hit it in one video let's dive in it [Music] okay so frame saws and bow saws what are the difference well basically all bow saws are a frame saw but not all frame saws are a bow saw the difference is a bow saw has a string or a tensioning device in the back so this is in tension whereas the middle beam is in compression a frame saw has a frame that goes around the saw blade and the saw blade is in tension and the two beams on the outside are in compression so in this case you're pulling the blade tight with a frame on either side of it and in this case you're pulling the blade tight by having a frame out here and bending the other side of the beam in so this is a bow saw it's also a type of frame saw but this is a frame saw and not a bow saw so let's go through some of the different types this is a robo style frame saw this is used for wrestling and sometimes they come in even much longer lengths that can be used for doing your pit sawing or milling your lumber from a log you may actually have a long one of this one person would be underneath the log 11 person to be on the top of log and then the whole thing would be running up and down like this slicing lumber out of the log these also come in slightly different varieties where these beams might be closer to the blade that's usually for a veneer sign because you don't need a whole lot of distance between the frame and the blade because the limiting factor on this is how large of an item you can put through here right now I can only cut something that will fit between these frames so if I'm going to cutting a log I can't cut anything that is larger than the distance between these in robo's designs he has these balls on the end that you would usually hold onto on mine I actually followed Tom fijian and put on handles here so that it makes a little bit easier to push but that's a personal preference this just feels more like a western-style saw this one is 32 inches long which is about the length I really like for one and one person much longer than that it's hard to get that full stroke in but if you go longer than that you can't have a to man style and those those become a lot easier because each person is just pulling or just pushing depending upon which way you want to do it and that makes it a lot easier half the time you're just relaxing now this is a common one you're going to come across in a lot of antique stores this is called a buck saw it is a type of bow saw because there's a string and tensioning device here in the back and each time you tension it you're gonna want to attention it as far as you possibly can and then usually I'll stick a screwdriver in there and get one or two more cranks out of it because more tension on this is a good thing as long as you're not putting too much on it you don't wanna break the beams but you could have put a lot on there do it so usually in this style I'm going to crank it down to about here it'll put a screwdriver in there and do one or one and a half more cranks this was designed for lumber work so for slicing logs off if I want to cut a log to length this is very good for it it's an aggressive cut they're usually a cross cut tooth pattern and that's because you're going to be cutting across the log makes it fairly easy now I like to use this in the shop for doing a lot of the rough cutting so anytime I want to cut a board to a general rough length I pulled this out it's very fast very efficient you can use it one-handed or you can use it two handed and you can slice through a board really really fast so any time you're seeing me breaking down lumber and I'm probably gonna pull this out to cut it to length another thing to be thinking about whenever working with any frame saw or bow saw is when you're done with it loosen it up you don't want to keep the tension on it you want to keep everything loose when you're not using it otherwise if it stays tight you're gonna be straining the pieces in there and over time that will cause them to break so loosen it up don't want to make it so loose that things fall apart but just enough so that everything is a little bit sloppy this is a continental style joinery saw when England and America went to a lot of back saws most of continental Europe kept with bow saws there's something that's fairly easy to make in comparison to how much it goes into a back saw and if you use them right they can be very functional in that you can turn the blade and when you turn the blade you can cut down as far as you want with a back saw you're limited in your cutting depth to how far you can go down before you hit the back of the plate these come in all sorts of different styles and types this one has a ripp tooth it's great for doing large Tenon's cutting that cheek down I'll pull this out occasionally you saw this one I was working on the bed making Tenon's for that just like any of the other ones there's a tensioning device on here you can crank it down and you keep going until you get a really nice clean and you can see how this one's not tight because it's more of like a bump when it's really nice and tight you'll have a nice peak this one is actually from a company that's still in existence in Germany and I can't pronounce it it's Huber douche jerk yeah yeah oh yeah but you can still buy these occasionally actually I bought this one at a swap meet and I've used it a few times it's a lot of fun this is a turning saw it's basically what we think of a band saw doing but in a much smaller formats there's about 12 inches of teeth so about 14 inches from beam to beam and this one's actually tightened up by spinning this around until you get a nice quick clean tink there we go but the reason it's called a turning saw is because you can turn the saw in the cut you can rotate these handles and change your angle of attack as you go through the work and then you come to coping saws or fret saws where the frame is all one piece and there really isn't a bow on here because the blade itself is what's being pulled in tension and the frame is supplying that tension but most people would kind of throw this into the same category as the blade itself is under tension keeping it a lot thinner and a lot smaller basically just a small turning saw it can do a lot of your detail work so when using the frame saw you don't want to set it on the work get it in line and I'm gonna eyeball down this blade set it exactly where I want it and then with one solid smooth push I'm just gonna go start my cut and then make sure I'm right in line keep it right aligned one more smooth cut and I'm right on the line I want to have now we keep on going down so you're gonna be wanting to use your body to do the pushing but then your arms can be doing the find guiding and then find a little bit right at the end then for guiding and controlling you have two different ways you can rotate it number one you can twist the blade itself and this will allow both sides of the track to either veer off this way or veer off that way or you can rotate the saw across it and this will allow you to move on your side it'll move that way and on the other side it'll move that way so sometimes you're going to have to go back and forth between the two until you guide it exactly over time the micro adjustments you're going to be doing while cutting it will be something that you just naturally do to follow that line so with a continental style saw it's going to feel a lot like using a hand saw in that your hand is moving in line with it just the same way you would you want your hand to be in line with your arm to be in line with your elbow all the way up to the shoulder so getting a nice clean force all the way across it you don't want to be moving your body that much making sure that you can keep that same smooth motion that's one of the things that determine the blade length is that it is the amount that you can move your arm and still get a nice clean cut from end to end now with the turning saw I have it in a push orientation some people really like it in the pole orientation everyone's a little different also I'm going to be grabbing it up here on the knuckle I'm not going to be grabbing it back here in the handle some people do like to grab it up here but I actually like to grab it in here my finger either going forward or wrapped around and then we can start town I don't want to really force this I want to let the saw do the work try and use the full length of the saw don't force it don't push it just let the saw have the fun and just like that it's a turning saw the nice thing about this is if you get to a spot where the the blade might be getting in the way you can actually then turn the saw in the middle of the cut and keep going in a different direction so the big question I get a lot is do I put them in a push or a pull orientation and the nice thing about most of these is if you want to pull it you just turn the saw around or if you want to push it you just turn the saw around most of these can go in both directions there isn't a front or a back to them with a few exceptions but that being said I generally cut most of mine in a push it's just what I'm comfortable with I use a lot of Western saws so pushing is something that my body is used to and I can do much better with much more control and much more force than I can with pulling if you're used to a pull saw a Japanese saw or things like that just turn the saw round and there you go you don't have to worry about making sure the blade is in the correct direction most of the time each of these saws you can get in different places this one is a kit from tools for working wood Gramercy actually makes the the kit for the turning saw this one I got from Blackburn Tool Works and I have a couple videos on making this one I have a whole series on making the turning saw the buck saws you can usually pick up at most antique stores if you want to see more about that I have an entire website devoted to finding hand tools it's called hand tool finder calm and a lot more information on that I'm trying to find the companies that made this and I'll try and put a link that down below but I come across these occasionally at tool meets there there are a lot of fun but I don't use them quite as much since I have back saws and tenon saws now there's a lot more I can get into them just scratching the surface especially if you go over to continental Europe where these are far more common and used a lot more you're gonna see a lot of other different types that are just harder to find over here and I don't have as much use for them because I tend to use more English style woodworking if you do have any comments or questions let me know down below I try and answer as many of those as I can also if you have anything particular that you like oh you do forgot to say this please let me know I'd love to hear that down below so I think that's about it for today if you did like the video please like comment and subscribe also if you want to help us out we're on patreon or you can click the join button down below and become a member here on YouTube I think that's about it for now and until next time I'm wonderfully I've been framed squared

Channel: Wood By Wright ASMR

Views: 51,834

Keywords: Wood By Wright, woodworking, Handtools, Hand tool, Hand Tools, Hand plane, Hardwood, Hardwoods, bowsaw, bow saw, hand saw, frame saw, framesaw, handsaw, turning saw, turningsaw, traditional woodworking, hand tool woodworking, woodworking hand tools, hand saws, tools, pannel saw, hand tools woodworking

Id: OwBniCKXKuw

Length: 10min 11sec (611 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 11 2019