cool new tool!

Don’t you love a new tool? Even more when it works as advertised! I got a new saw frame delivered from America last Friday. I found out about this amazing invention via The Justified Sinner who is a regular poster on Crafthaus, which I joined earlier this year. (Can we say that yet, only one month in?) I was well chuffed as it arrived in time for me to start on my Buda entry (which incidentally, requires an absolute f-bomb’s load of sawing, which for me needs to be finished in the next week or so.)

It’s a Knew Concepts 5″ Jewellers Saw, ordered online. I have to say, it’s very light. On picking it up it weighed so little I let out a surprised “Whoa”, to nobody in particular. It’s actually 115 grams. (I had to know, ok?) I just weighed my really old 3″ steel saw frame – the standard wooden-handled type, and it is 142g (with a 6/0 blade, in case you were wondering.) The other impressive thing that I noted on its arrival was that it made it all the way out here with the installed saw-blade fully intact. It looked about the size of a 2/0, so maybe that’s not such a big deal. (Does a 2/0 exist? I use only 6/0’s so I really don’t know…)

Most importantly though, it cuts a very fine line. Better than my other beloved (yet still expensive) Vallorbe saw frame, from Tool World in the city.  I’ve been a little worried about my sawing of late, since I made two sawing errors last year. Just between you and me, I was starting to think to myself “Maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m losing my touch.”

I think that the wobble of my new (dodgy) desk might have contributed to that, and a slow developement of more flex in my old saw frame. Now that I have such a tight saw frame, I’m noticing less vibration, so I can go faster. On the flip side, I’m also now more aware of the vibrations of my dodgy setup, so that might be the next thing to fix!