Looking for a Woodjoy bow saw

[Travis Fatzinger]

Hi,

I'm looking for a Woodjoy bow saw that I see mentioned quite a bit on here. Is it possible they went out of business?

I'm looking to cope some 4" diameter log rail spindles into curved steps that are above the spindles and am thinking a bow/turning saw is the way to go. I need to this next weekend so I don't have time to make one.

If Woodjoy is out the TFWW Gramercy looks nice, but I saw some reviews that it is rather delicate and I'm wondering if the thicker wood might be a problem.

Highland has a 400mm saw that might work if I buy the additional narrow turbo cut blade. Any other options I'm missing?

Thanks,

Travis

[Dave Anderson NH]

Woodjoy is indeed out of business. Glenn decided a few years ago it was time to retire and did so.

[Travis Fatzinger]

Thanks for confirming. I guess I have to decide whether the Highland or Gramercy option sill work better for coping logs.

[Jack Dover]

They work, not sure about green wood, but in dried they work just fine.

Highland hardware offers a so called Japanese narrow blade, which is basically a narrow turning blade with a Japanese crosscut teeth. Their frame saw is decent, slightly larger than an English turning saw, it's light and properly tightens the handles. I only with they would thread a longer portion of a tension rod. They also offer ECE saws, but not in turning size. I guess for green wood you would want a coarse "universal" tooth (basically a rip tooth with some fleam) and a heavy set. You probably also want it resharpenable - the Japanese blade is hard teeth.

But given you don't have time for making\buying - an axe is your other option, followed by a drawknife, followed by a spokeshave. If you can get a larger drawknife you can even skip an axe, the larger the drawknife the more material it can move, 4" is a chewing toy for those things.

[Tom M King]

How many do you have to cut?

[Travis Fatzinger]

I didn't think about using the draw knife and spoke shave. that's a good idea because I'm not sure how much I'd use a $200 bow saw after this project.

The half round log steps above this railing start to cut into the 36" railing height about 3 ft from the end. So I have about 5 spindles to do.

I'm also rethinking coping them into the logs above and just cutting the spindles shorter and putting a new tenon on them. Of course this would require a lot to go right as far as them falling where a step above will support them. I have until next weekend so still a little time to decide.

Thanks for the ideas.

[David Carroll]

I bought the Gramercy saw when it first came out. Beautifully made, hickory I think. It worked great! Very thin blade, as I recall, like a 12-inch coping saw blade. I think they supplied it with 2, the other one might've been wider. I didn't really use it much, I had an old Marples turning saw that I used more, but still not enough and sold them both. I never got the hang of using bow saws. For the little curved work that I do (along with cutting the waste from dovetails) I just use my old trusty coping saw.

DC

[Tom M King]

For that few a number, I'd probably just use what I had, like a coping saw. It would take a while, but total time would probably still be less than thinking about, and ordering another tool.

[Tom Bender]

A horseshoeing rasp cuts pretty fast