WORKING MIDSIZE BOWSAW FOR CURVED CUTS

Bow Saw Notes

For practical use or shop decoration 15"-16" saw blades, can be

purchased or use bandsaw blade cut-off

Example pictures: Birdseye Maple and Claro Walnut

Cheeks (uprights) are made from 2 doweled halves No mortising or drilling required, all parts can be cut on CNC

TRADITIONAL BOWSAW Windlass toggle locks with button into

stretcher part. Hemp twine as bowstring.

Front and rear handle are also glued from 2 halves and capture the brass pins Sanded and buffed on the lathe (could be done in a drill press as well.

16.25" Strip of 15tpi bandsaw blade Ends 1/2" annealed red hot to soften the hardened steel Drilled with 1.2mm bit Small finish nails hammered in with interference fit. Clipped to fit the brass pins

Some tips and instructions: The bottom side roughing toolpath for the cheeks is done with a ¼” endmill bit for

speed reasons, everything else is done with 1/8” endmill and 1/8" ballnose bits. To save the bit change one can of course go to 1/8” (much slower) but then the allowance should also be reduced to save the unnecessary cutting time.

Both .crv files reference z-zero from the material surface for all top side toolpaths and from the spoilboard for all bottom side toolpaths. The toolpath for the

spoilboard dowel holes (flip alignment) is also referenced to the spoilboard as z-zero

The dowels for flip alignment as well as for the cheek gluing are all 5mm bamboo rods (a.k.a. marshmallow sticks). This can be increased to regular ¼” dowels but it will take some essential material away.

The handle pins are 3" x 5/16" (M8 x 80mm) partially threaded and decapitated brass bolts (easy to slot with a hacksaw) with the threads glued into the handle. But regular partially threaded 5/16 steel bolts (hex or carriage) would work just as well.

If the blade is only 15" long (can be purchased from Highlandwoodworking.com), the pin length extending from the handles should be 1/2" longer