Baby Bow Saw – Test Run
So at the urging of a few people who wanted to know how the saw would cut, I put it together this morning and cut a curve in some ¾ pine. Nothing tricky, but the kind of thing I end up doing a lot.
I put in a new Pegas Coping Skip 6.5” 18tpi blade, and tightened it up. I took it to about an A#, just above A440Hz. That's an octave below the tension I normally have in the metal-framed coping saw, but it feels more solid. I'll tighten it up further after I re-tie the string a little tighter. Currently it took over a dozen turns to get to this tension because the string is fairly loose when straight.
The saw cuts reasonably well, and while I didn't hit any places where I was turning so sharply it would bind, the tension in the blade would've kept that from happening.
The two things I noticed were that it has a shallower throat (not surprising, that's how I built it) so I had to approach the cut differently, and the wood flexes less, which makes it feel more solid in use.
I'll keep the metal framed coping saw around, probably with a coarse blade for wasting away wood in a hurry, but I suspect this one will get a lot of use in the future.
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