Making the Frame Saw | Paul Sellers

I wondered if you knew about this bow so this frame saw this is a saw that's been used in mainland Europe for centuries and here in the good old UK the US of A generally they used a brass back tenon saw were these superior to these not really not at all in fact in fact craftsmen are still using these today in different parts of Europe and why were they well let me give you a quick demo because we're going to make one but I just want to show you what this saw will do straight off so if you're cutting the cheeks of your Tenon's it's very effective just as effective as a tenon saw so this one I just bought the blade nothing else it's very effective very effective so this is a basic very standard joinery saw this would be used for joinery so here we cross cut the shoulders and we're going a width and across the grain about equally this will give you some idea of why Europeans the mainland Europeans didn't really adopt the tenon saw they didn't need it very effective four shoulders four cheeks in a matter of few minutes there it is so you can see it was very effective it worked just as well as a tenon saw if not better I thought it was working fine I could do big cheeks with this much bigger than I can do with a regular talent saw what about dovetails well let's just take a quick look I'm not going to do the whole dovetail but watch here does that work or what same blade same saw I don't think I could beat that, perfect I want to show you how to make a frame saw this saw is very useful it doesn't have to be complicated you don't need any turning parts to it because it's a frame a joinery saw so we're going to use this for joinery we can use it for cross-cutting two-by-fours we can use it for cross-cutting limbs in a garden we can use it for just about anything it will cross cut and it will rip in the same saw depending on the blade I've got this one laid out this one I'm going to lay out I've measured up from the end here seven and a half inches from from the bottom here seven and a half inches I made a line across squared a line across and I made a second line and marked a second point here that's going to be a tenon piece the mortise is going to hold a tenon on the end of this not very deep and this part is the width of the blade but to get the start point here I just measured up three eight seven eight about ten millimeters on each side like this and like this and then what I'm going to do is show you on the other one so this one comes on here I just took that mark like this one two all the ends of my materials are squared every surface has been planed and then I'm just going to take this tin this is a three inch diameter tin so this is just a regular vegetable can there I'm going to put this on both sides so that you can see where I'm shooting for as I cut and file rasp whatever I do to this so there I'm going to round the ends just for comfort as much as anything good I'm ready to go I've got to get these marks off this one I want them to match one another so I'm going to square the lines across here one two and this is my stop and start line to receive this saw blade itself in the middle of here I'm going to take my finger and I'm going to eyeball the center here so I go up here now this wood is spruce and it could be in the u.s. s pmf will work perfectly for this if SP NF is just a stud grade it's a spruce pine and fir and any pine would work too so those lines I need to cut down so I'm going to cut down those first using a frame saw that I already have made so I'm going to go down that line right in the from glass the top down to the line like that the same on this one get the lines square across first drop the hand as you go down this is fighting me a little bit that's that then I'm going to take a rasp see this little shape here take that down this is a not really a necessary step but it stops the saw from catching when it's being used and you can do that with a chisel - you can take off the bulk of it take one half of that pop it pop it pop it just take the bulk off then follow through just to speed things up a little bit but you want to stay close to your ply so we do that on all four pieces okay now this is going to be the bottom of my saw and this is the bottom of my saw on these two faces these are opposite so this is where this rail is going across here this would be called a beam the blade will be in this side and the string will be across the top so I want to put a couple of holes in here I've already marked this I measured in 3/4 of an inch from this outside edge the size of this material is 16 inches long 2 inches wide and 1 inch thick so I've come in 3/4 from this edge and then I put this I place this on this point on the curve I place the blade here and then I pulled it till it was over the centerline of there I want to make sure it's clear here so that's where I got this centerline for the hole from can you see right in there so the blade is not sticking out of the end why did I go this far in why didn't I put it in the center just gives a little bit of extra meat on the wood to help keep the strength where I want it so I'm going to transfer this mark to get this the same onto this piece same distance here square the line across there's my three quarters in so I just bore through these I'm just going to use a hand drill it's plenty good enough for this for this cordless drill yeah and that's just going to take a screw just like that to hold the blade in place later same on this one all the way through we'll take my bow saw just clean out the the chuff inside like that now the next stage is to cut the notches and chop the mortise I've set a mortise gage up for a quarter inch chisel so the chisel goes right in between the two points here maybe slightly oversized that's up to you right in here two lines and right in here two lines that's all you see those nice crisp mortise lines there and we're going to chop this mortise half an inch deep it doesn't need to be any deeper you're going to be cutting this little scalloped in here to receive the tenor very simple this bit so this is the with them starting away from my line in between the two lines then I'll chop and then I go right on the pencil line here and sharp it's not an exact science this this is just something to get you started in woodworking it's very inexpensive it gets a saw in your hands in your child's hands so I'm already down to my half inch depth here so I'm stopping myself from going any deeper the reason we don't want to go too deep is we don't want to weaken this this part of the frame saw it's important that it has sufficient strength turn my chisel around back up here just take this a little bit deeper here and that's that part almost done so now I just go in with my chisel fingers underneath to stop bruising the wood although this is a saw it's not fine furniture but just to stop bruising the wood around the perimeter of the hole that's that bit done nice crisp clean mortise hole perfectly fine for this so I'm going to put this next development in here so I go in with my chisel right I'm going to do one side first I go here go lighter take out that midsection here take out the bulk of the waist just like this the same on this side staying above your line like this then bevel down just follow that radius as closely as you can don't go below that pencil line change hands here do the same on the other side so you can see I'm right in that bevel just perfectly as near as I can get it see where how close there's my pencil line you can see I'm very close to my line same on this other one just the same so a center cut that's just a stock cut just to take out some of the bulk then you're going to go bevel down now this is quite soft wood so you may at some point after you made this frame saw you may want to choose a harder wood or you may want to choose a harder wood before the idea of using spruce or something like that is the weight and strength I think spruce may be the strongest wood per strength weight ratio of any wood in the world so now somebody will probably correct me but I think it's pretty close to that I'm right on there so what I did here I just rounded a piece of wood to the shape I want just to make something to just clean up those areas just a little bit just to smooth them out get the radius where I want it that's one part now I have to put a tenon on the end of each one of these how did I get to the length of this beam I want to show you then you can follow suit that's going to go that way this here this here make sure you have everything arranged I've already cut most of this stuff to the actual finished length here's my blade my blade goes in here just find the hole inside and just pop one of the screws in like this this is going to fix the location that's all so we know the exact length that we want between the beams now your saw blade may be very different depending on where you buy it from it may be different than mine so just bear that in mind so I can't really give you the size that I exactly have because it may vary so that's just the threads of the screw catching on the metal so now we've got this distance here right here to here so I have a set distance there and I want this part to be the same as the distance when I close this up I want this to be 20 in my case it's good 20 and 5/8 so there is 20 and 5/8 this then goes on here and this goes to the extent of the radius so that's the extent of the radius so that means that I'm parallel I've cut this to length I've got this radius let me mark this on here so you can see what I'm talking about I've got the bean can here that goes there so this will go right in between those two points can you see that so that works perfectly that means when we pull this together with the string this will stretch the blade to give it the tautness that it needs so that's how I got the length of the beam that means this beam actually is half an inch long longer than I can you see there that's my actual shoulder the end of the shoulder so if I put this here and here let me square that with the square because this doesn't need these two sides do need to be exactly the same the radius in between there here's my marking gauge my mortis gauge is marking the position of the tenon like this go ahead and Mark that on here for you if we oops that's nothing that's it so that's exactly centered in my piece of wood then I go back to my been can and I've got these two points here I want this point and this point can you see that so I want this point those are the two extremes of the radius that I want on this side so I go right up tight make my art can you see it there so this is going to have a radius on there same on this side here now if I am slightly under on this side it's going to make the end piece twist around just a little bit so I don't want that so I'm going to try here to be as exact as I can I'm going to take the square let's just take a quick look and see how close I am to that square and there I am can you see how close I am so I'm exactly where I want to be in terms of accuracy this part here you could use the bow so if you've already made one not likely so here just follow the art a little bit it doesn't have to be exact you see remember neatness though watch what happens here now I'm going to go back to my can I want to take the knife let me turn this so you can see okay here so I'm going to take my can again I want to make a definitive shoulder line with a knife wall just for clarity so this comes around here doesn't have to be scored very deep just follow that radius here flip over and do the same again this side this will help the start and stop and give it the precision that I want now then what we're going to do is we're going to saw down this with a fine saw so I'm going to the I'm going on the waste side of the wood with this first cut here again follow the arc close to it doesn't have to be exact because we're going to trim this in a minute I should cut this from your side then the fibers will be supported on the inside this is quicker and easier now I'm going to take a smaller chisel maybe a half inch chisel and I'm just going to go right into that knife wall here so I'm feeling for the edge there I'm right in it just pare down any angular corners follow the radius around like this this wood has got some really hard spots in it which you don't really always expect do the same on this side clean up and you can actually take a file onto this if you want to you won't need to if you're using a software you certainly won't need to because it will compress into a perfect radius now this should fit into here, the width of the tenon maybe just a hair too thick which it is so I'm just going to go in here just pare down a little bit on the wall inside here like this I left a little bit on just so I could pare down the inside this try not to lean on the ends because it will just bruise the wood here and the length of the tenon too doesn't need to hit the end you want it to be free of the end so what we're going to do because the because this is radiused i want to radius this part here a little bit too I'm going to go back to my raft just take out a little bit of the corner this will allow a little bit of movement inside the mortise to put the leverage where I want it and hopefully this will be closed like that that's all I want so I've got close to the radius I want can you see it right in there if I press down here can you see right in there all right and I'm also good on this side it's a little bit not quite as good but it is certainly good enough there is my frame saw joint so I'm going to do the same on the other end and then we'll get back together and I'll show you what the next stage is the next stage on this is - I've got everything finished out and sanded or should I say rasped filed and everything and cleaned up on the areas I've checked the beam in here it works fine so I put a number on here one and one and two - two and I've decided this is going to be the handle end I'm going to have a dedicated handle rather than having a handle at each end the benefit of having a handle at each end is you don't have to be concerned where they blow which way the blade goes around you can use either either end but I want mine dedicated I want this to be the handle so that when I pick it up I know which direction the teeth are going and I don't have to look so this is my handle end and this is the part I want to shape also at the top here I want to put some kind of a of a shape in here where the string will go around like this so what I do to create that is quick and simple one notch down here picked a bad spot with the nut in there didn't i and the bevel edge chisel like this one here check your jet your grain direction this is going nose-diving already so I'll use that to my advantage so down into the valley like this and just take out the bulk of the waste so from here bevel down read your grain as much as you can see this is nose-diving here at this side where the knot was but it's been fine it's really in to my advantage in this case you do need to know the grain and work with it that's my not technically I wouldn't have to do much more than this spoke shave just to bear this into that Hollow just clean up like that then I would probably go with a rasp and if I didn't have a rasp I would just go with the sandpaper in the block of wood like this I'm going to just not really do much more than that I could put a little bit of a notch in here just to hold the string in place I don't need very much this is fine that's that shape now I can use this one here to create the matches this is heavy duty this is kind of cumbersome but this is actually going to be a heavier saw that I might normally use because of the size of the teeth you just refine yours and this is a course to a tool it's going to be used for maybe cross-cutting limbs could be useful here all depends on the blade you're putting in yours this is going to give you the saw whether it's for cutting dovetails or cutting tenons whatever it's going to be a saw that works you can refine it just as much as you like make sure these tools are out of the way go in and sand it clean it up as much as you want that's going to work now I've got my handle part to do this needs to be comfortable this is quite big on this one so I'm going to take this inside corner just like this with a 45 more from the end but I don't want go into this notched area here that's that one works perfectly so when my fingers go around here it actually feels quite comfortable but I could go in here as well and make this a little narrower because it's quite big in here that's we used it quite a bit so now it's feeling quite comfortable here just take off the corner first and then start feeling the corner just for size and see how it fits you home now it's feeling quite chunky still so I'm going to go some more and that fits my hand spruce dust let's put this together see how it goes so two goes to two there saw blade in here so making sure my teeth are going towards the this end here and now I'm looking for the whole bit like playing with sharks this is now you can put knots and bolts in here if you want to once this is cinched up tight these will not turn loose so I wouldn't I wouldn't worry too much this doesn't want to go in just doesn't want to find the hole here this end is plugged up a little bit that's in there that works fine think I'll have the screws going from the same face there so now we can apply pressure on here let's see how that goes now I've just got some thin cotton line and you could use nylon for this you could use just about anything you want I'm just going to wrap this a couple of times here and then I just go around and around a half a dozen times or more or depending pulling it tight as I go and you can put as many around you don't miss the snap what cotton is very strong and so is nylon so you could use either there I now have a frame saw or a bow saw one on the same really and what I like about this actually I have one where I keep a hacksaw blade in it and it's wonderful because of the length of the blade for cutting steel cutting metals and I love that saw is wonderful so good tighten up bow on the bite here reef knot whichever you prefer then I've got one stick here this is just stick it needs to go just past the middle and have enough to turn it so doesn't matter which way you turn this keeps inching this tight up push it through to near the center just twist it like this just keep going going going people are pretty frightened of this but this is you know this spruce is pretty stout for this that's one of the things you don't need to go too light on the wood thinking it's going to break because there's a good chance that it will not break as long as you don't go too cinch so that's my bow saw it's a wonderful project to make with your children and your grandchildren this one needs sharpening I know it does and I cover that in another video let's just give it a quick pass into this wood feels nice and stout here we go it works you just needs some refinements on the blade and that's ready to work I hope you enjoyed it I enjoyed it you can see the joints here nice and neat crisp clean lines here all the way around this will last me probably for a hundred years can't see any reason why not the blade is resharpenable I would look for that in a blade they definitely need sharpening they didn't come from the manufacturer as they should ready to go so I just have to touch them up you

Channel: Paul Sellers

Views: 475,012

Rating: 4.9426918 out of 5

Keywords: Woodworking, Hand Tools, Paul Sellers (Person), Saw Sharpening, Frame Saw, Bow Saw

Id: Z4LohjmskEk

Length: 36min 24sec (2184 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 09 2015