◾️ Prince of a Frame Saw

A frustrating practice in the shop is “whittling” down a thicker piece of wood to get a thin panel of wood or veneer. It takes a lot of work to get that thin piece. I thought I would address the problem, once and for all, by making a frame saw. During that project, the Artist formally known as Prince came to mind. A tribute to the Artist. What? The frame saw – A Prince of a frame saw – of course. Why? I’ll discuss that later.

Producing shop made veneer is a problem when all you have is a hand saw. A last resort just may be gnawing the piece with the saw. You know, those little frustrating attempts to scrape the plank as if you’re sculpting clay. Yes, those.

If you are an acolyte, you might think about breaking your “vow” to the hand tool goddess. Then you’d wish for a power band saw which would make short work of this task!

And save a lot of wood.

Nothing hurts more than needing more veneer and having none, because the source plank has already been rendered into useless pieces. Too bad that I couldn’t get more panels from that wasted piece of wood!

A sharpened hand saw will work to get a slice but sometimes it’s hard to get the control and heft needed to make that long rip cut.

Enter the frame saw

Frame saws are used to resaw lumber or wood planks, along the grain, into thin sheets of veneer that are subsequently used to make book match panels and marquetry.

Andre Roubo described and illustrated many of the tools used in the 18th century work shop in L’Art du Menuisier, the Book of Plates. The frame saw, featured on Plate 278, was one of those tools. For centuries, the tool has been used throughout the world in similar form. It is usually wielded by two people for sawing large timbers and planks.

For a hand tool woodworker like me, a frame saw is a great tool to have. And it seemed to be a fun tool to make.

I found some maple blanks left over from my roubo wood bench build that would be perfect for the long handles or side pieces of the frame. I found a couple of pieces of scrap hickory to make the short handle/head on one end and heel on the other end of the frame.

To complete my saw project, I ordered the rest of the components:

• a forged iron scroll work hardware kit

• a pre-punched 32″ x 2″, 0.032″ thick saw blade blank with 3-1/2″ tpi (4.5 ppi), rip cut profile.

The scroll hardware anchors the blade in the saw frame. The length of the blade is dependent on the desired length of the completed saw. The tool can be short or long. No rules.

After my UPS friend dropped off the hardware and blade, I drafted the pattern for the wood and thought about the shape of the frame side pieces.

This was a great exercise and the drafting skills I picked up in high school came in handy (always does). Any design will do as long as the handle/head fits your grip. I ensure this by frequently test fitting to my hands, making sure the curve was ergonomically comfortable.

A little precision is needed when chopping the mortises in the head and heel for the handles. Drilling holes in the waste portion of the blade blank makes it easy to come back with a chisel or coping or fret saw to get rid of more wood around the design.

After more rough shaping, I used rasps to further shape and refine the frame saw head and heel.

Initially, I was going to apply a protectant finish like shellac to finish the entire saw. But an awesome idea occurred to me near the end of the project.

Dedicated 2 the AFKP

Days before, singer-songwriter and music innovator Prince died and the world, including me, began to mourn. A gigantic celebration of his life, time, movies, and music grew. Over the next few days, it got bigger and rose to a crescendo.

I played his music in my shop nonstop, and thought about his prolific life.

I was fortunate to see him perform in concert during the Musicology Live 2004ever tour. It was a treat.

Then, something occurred to me right there in the shop. While studying that frame saw looking for opportunities to tweak this project, a light bulb came on in my head.

Guess who?

It occurred to me that the leaf tip of the hardware at the handle/head took on the magical shape of Prince’s love symbol guitar as it slung off his shoulder. Immediately, another idea entered my head regarding how I would finish the frame saw.

Continuing with this project, I finally fit the scroll work hardware in the wood. Drilling the holes (2 in each end) in the blade blank without a carbide drill bit required a little time and muscle, or rather, finessing. But I got it done with a regular HSS drill bit without overheating the tip. It only took 20 minutes of careful intermittant drilling.

Before inserting the blade into the frame, I sharpened with an 8″ (4-5ppi) regular tapered file in a rip pattern.

I applied a couple of coats of teak oil on the handle/head and heel and a covering of paint on the long handles in a color shade inspired by Prince’s recognizable purple!

What a finish! Now, resawing should not be such a daunting task. Best of all, veneer can be had in a most efficient manner. And no waste!

I dedicated my frame saw to Prince Rogers Nelson.

Rest in Purple.

▪️

In a later post, after a bit more fine tuning, you’ll see the frame saw in action.

Right now, I am using the saw alone. Two people certainly would make the work go faster! Here’s a teaser video for now:

Oh, so close!

-Shirley J

💜