Creative Woodworks & crafts 1998-07, страница 50

Q1 Wes' Workshop

Subject: Scroll Saw Blades

by Wes Demarest

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Welcome!

Since you are reading this magazine, you more Lhan likely already own a scroll saw. Based on that, I'll not spend this new column dwelling on the basics of selecting a saw, but will instead attempt to relate to you what I've learned in eighteen years of cutting, the last eight as a commercial cuttcr. I'm half ol a ~ husband and wife team, perhaps much like yourselves, who have gotten caught up in ihe business ol' selling products from the scroll saw that can pay for new tools or put food on the table.

We trade under the name of "Uncle Wes' Woodshop," and travel the craft show circuit I'roiii New York State to Florida. Our work is also featured in a craft gallery and we provide lessons and demonstrations. Our schedule is planned around a show every three to four weeks, beginning in March and ending the week before Christmas, with the lessons and demonstrations thrown in between—a full-time job to say the least! I do llie cutting, sanding and first oil coat, and "Aunt" Alice, my wife, docs the rest. We produce some original work, bul with the high quality and vast selection of patterns available today, it has to be something really special to entice me to sit down and draw it myself. I'm not an artist—I can't even draw a straight line, bul I can finally cut one.

You have probably learned that scroll sawing is not a fast-paccd activity; it takes time and in my case not patience, but determination. It drives Alice nuts when a nice lady walks into our display booth and says, '"You must have the patience of a saint!" 1 don't, but it does bring a smile to my face watching Alice's expression. Time is the only limit on what we can produce.

We generally sell simpler pieces—I've never cut the Chimes of Normandy as I would hate to tie up my

Lime and materials on speculation of that scale. Besides, others on the show circuit are doing clocks and we try not to duplicate the competition. With the growing number of scrollers out there, staying original is a constant challenge, but one we enjoy.

But let's spend this column on another scrolling

_challenge—checking the

quality of your blades.

Here's my craft show display booth. Typical scroll saw blade detail

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Make sure the distance from the bottom of each gullet to the back of the blade is uniform

Do your blades make the cut?

1 was recently mounting a blade in a saw at a lool show and as I was looking over the blade, an observer questioned what I was doing. When I explained that I was checking ihe quality of the blade, he remarked that all blades are good, that the cutter is the responsible party if a cut isn't up to snuff. As luck would have it, the blade that I had been checking was exceptionally bad, and the proof was in the cutting. You could see the light bulb above that observer's head go on, but 1 have met many others who shared the same erroneous op in ion. They all thought that the blade itself had nothing to do with their poor cutting ability, that they were just having a bad day.

Not true, my fellow scrollers! It seems that scroll sawing has grown beyond many manufacturers' expectations. I once counted nearly two dozen blades out of a gross that had been machined to cut at 20 to 25 degrees from a straight line. In fact, I once got 11 bad blades in a row out of a dozen. The last one was a super blade, though—it lasted more than an hour and a half and cut within two degrees of straight. Examination of the bad blades under a lens revealed that several areas along the blade had uneven gullets and groups of teeth were milled on an angle.

Occasionally, a visual inspection will indicate an acceptable blade that still won't cut straight, but that

Tooth