Making a Turning Saw

What little shop time I’m getting right now is coming in very short segments. Casting around for a smallish project, that didn’t require juggling large pieces of wood resulted in my indulging a desire to own a turning saw.

What’s a turning saw you ask?  It’s a small bowsaw, of course?  Oh…and a bowsaw is a handsaw where a wooden frame holds a blade under tension.  I think its fair to say they are more popular in Europe than in North America, though more and more of us are coming to understand to their virtues.

Bowsaws come in many shapes and sizes and are used for everything from cutting tree limbs to cutting coped mouldings.  If a coping saw is a Pinto, a turning saw is a Ferrari.

A turning saw is on the small end of the bowsaw size continuum.  The photo above shows one in action as a luthier cuts the headstock on a guitar.   Notice that he’s able to turn the blade relative to the frame as he makes his cut.  These saws not hard to make, particularly if you take advantage of the hardware (blade and holders) from Tools for Working Wood.  They also have a great set of plans/templates that you can download for a turning saw.  Of course, if you don’t want to build one, they’ll be happy to sell you one too (grin).  If you don’t have a lathe or lathe skills, you can always create handles that are either square or hexagonal (using a drawknife or spokeshave to cut the flats).

To build a turning saw requires a small amount of wood.  From the top left, this small block of mahogany (1/2″x3/4″x6″) became the tensioner, the larger mahogany block (2″x2″x8″) became the handles, and the three pieces of maple (3/4″ cut to template length) was used to create the frame itself.

Step 1: First step is to print the templates.  For this you must print without fit-to-page and you need to print to 8.5×14 paper.  This will give you full-size templates.  If you don’t have 14″ (legal size) paper, you can tape a couple sheets together to create some as you only need a couple sheets.  Once you have templates, attaching them to the frame pieces with a spray adhesive will give you the required outlines.

Step 2: Before shaping the parts, I cut the mortises in each of the two frame sides and the tenons on each end of the spreader piece.  These joints are a bit different from most M&T joints as they have to be somewhat loose as the frame pieces rotate slightly as tension is placed on the arms.

A) I marked out the mortises according to the templates using a marking gauge.

B) I drilled out the bulk of the wood to create the mortise.  These small motises required drilling a couple 1/4″ holes next to one another, controlling depth as you do it.  I used a brad-point bit for this to help with location.

C) Using a chisel I pared the sides smooth andsquared up the corners.

D) While there’s no photo, I also drilled the holes through which the blade holders fit.  This is much easier to do while the frame pieces are still square.

Step 3: Now you take your turning saw and cut out along the outlines.  The ultimate Catch-22 I suppose.  As I didn’t have a turning saw…yet, I used a band saw, followed up by some rasp work to get the basic shapes.

Step 4: Knowing that the frame shaping was the major task ahead, I procrastinated by turning the handles.  Turning stuff is just kewl and this process always gives me a thrill.  I’m easily amused.  The Honduran Mahogany I used is a really nice mahogany for handles.

Step 5: The shaping portion of the frames is the most work.  It involves rounding over of the edges and the creation of pleasing curves.  I ran a pencil around all the perimeters, keeping the distance from the edge the same in all cases.  These lines served as guidelines to allow me to remove equal amounts of stock off the edges.  I used both curved- and straight-blade spokeshaves to do most of the shaping, finishing up with a cabinet rasp.

Then there was some sanding involved….lots of sanding (grin).  Ultimately I sanded everything to 220 grit.

Step 6: This is where I realize that I forgot to take a photo of the creation of the tensioner.  I wasn’t too particular about the shape, simply tapering the piece in both dimensions.  Then I used a file to round the top and to cut small indentations where the tensioning string sits.  I used sandpaper glued to dowels of proper diameter to smooth the edges of those grooves.  Sorry for the lack of photo but you can see it on the finished saw, particularly if you click on the photo to see the larger version.

Step 7: On to the finish step.  I prefer my tools to have a ‘soft’ finish so I applied a couple coats of boiled linseed oil to bring out the grain a bit and then applied a couple coats of shellac.  I’m pretty happy with the results.

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com