Coping Saw (Yarn Bowls)
Mr. Gordon (Stuart):
My blades arrived fine and have since been put to (I hope and think) good use. My latest “artistic” effort has been to try making wooden “yarn bowls” like those available through various sources. My wife is a “knitter” and had seen them and asked whether or not I thought I could make her one.
On line I found somewhat detailed instructions from another “craft” type woodworker who had purchased a bamboo wooden bowl from Ikea and then turned it into a “yarn bowl” by making a fairly intricate cut out pattern on the side. His description used a Dremel hand held rotating type tool and various bits and cutting pieces to clean out the design and he then sanded and finished the edges.
My first efforts were made using a similar approach but I did modify his technique somewhat by cutting out part of the opening design that I could reach using a Coping saw – which with a traditional blade obviously had limitations. While I do a fair amount of Scroll Saw projects and knew there were spiral blades available for those, I hadn’t seen anything similar for Coping saws though my son - who is an accomplished woodworker/cabinet maker/ and otherwise - said he thought he’d seen spiral Coping saw blades advertised and suggested looking into those since they would be more applicable in cutting out the entire pattern considering there would be no need to turn the blade and angle the saw itself as much and so on.
So I did investigate and in fact found, among others, your site and your available blades which were stated as being applicable for use in a “standard” Coping Saw without the need for purchasing a special handle as was stated needed for some of the other available spiral blades. And – I’m pleased to say that to this point at least the blades seem to work extremely well for my needs in cutting out the relief pattern in the side of the bowl. My first effort was with the .028 blade and that worked well. My second effort then was with the .04 and that too seemed to work nicely. To date I’ve only made the 2 bowls and so I have not yet used the .05 but will on my next effort. Interestingly, the .028 seems to actually cut with a little more ease that the larger diameter size blade in my first evaluations, at least in the bamboo, so we’ll see how the .05 does before making any final decisions on which is actually the best for my purposes.
The bowls incidentally are 9” diameter bamboo bowls from Ikea and while I may in the future attempt using some other types of wood bowls, they will all have to be purchased since lathe work is not something I do and at this point have no intention of starting. Guess that’s it as to my “evaluation” of the Spiral blades. Hope that helps some and you may, if questioned, feel free to share my “in use” experience and review with others. Should you be totally confused as to what exactly a “yarn bowl” is and have any additional interest in seeing just what type of “relief pattern’ I’m cutting with the blades, a quick look on the web using “wooden yarn bowls” should provide some information. Thanks for having the blades and I’ll be in touch in the future as my needs arise.
Best Regards, Steve