Wilh. Putsch Frame/Bow Saws any good?

[Jon Toebbe]

So I've recently developed a yen to play around with European-style frame saws. Tage Frid managed to do decent work with them, after all. ;) In any event, I've found several suppliers (Woodcraft, Traditional Woodworker, Highland Hardware, etc.) that offer a "Continental Frame Saw" and replacement blades for not too much money.

I've only found a few references to them elsewhere online. Some folk think they're junk and some swear they're excellent users. Any strong opinions one way or another? SWMBO thinks the dachsund in a house logo (Hundehuette) is cute, :rolleyes: but I'm more concerned with how they cut.

Cheers,
Jon

[Charles Stanford]

They're lousy. Get an ECE saw from Adria Tools instead.

I had a Putsch I bought from Highland Hardware. Tensioning the frame would not keep the blade from spinning freely. I contacted HH for a replacement, but asked them to check the saw before it shipped. They contacted me and said that not one saw they put together would tension enough to keep the blade from rotating freely. Why they still offer them for sale I don't know. I guess guys who don't know any better buy them and keep them.

I bought the ECE and the blade is rock steady when the frame is on tension.

[Terry Beadle]

I purchased blades from Highland Hardware and made the frames. The bow saws cut more quickly than any other saw. Gee, that should stir up some opinions... This statement was from a demonstration article I saw a few years ago in a magazine. Tage Frig swore by them but if you look closely in his dovetailing video, you see he had control problems. I wouldn't recommend using a big bow saw on dovetails. Not the right tool but a small framed bow saw would work very well.

I use bow saws for long cuts that are too awkward to do on the band saw. I found the most useful one was with a smallish frame and a blade that is only 14 inches long. By building your own frame, you can control the pivoting of the blade. Tensioning is no problem on my bow saws so I can't comment on why the bow saws from HH may be giving some one fits. The rope I use and the stick can produce more tension than is required, especially on the big oak frame one I made that has about a 2 foot blade. It's an 7~8 tpi German made blade and will cut very quickly.

I have found that the Japanese saws cut extremely fast and give great control. For the price, they are hard to beat. I prefer English dovetail saws over Japanese dovetail saws though, in hard woods. Softer woods like cherry, fir, cypress will cut like butter with a Japanese dozuki noko.

When it comes to dovetails or tight jointery, we live in a world of wonderful choices. Mike's saws, I've not owned one ( yet!), look to me like the optimum and from SMC commenter's they are the cat's meow.

Good luck!

[Matthew Springer]

I've got a 24" ECE with a japense blade and 26" highland hardware with the Putsch blade.

Less is definitely more. Even the 24" is way too unwieldy for me to get a good straight cut. The 26" is almost completely useless with the putsch blade. Granted, I don't have tons of practice, but the 26" gives me a really wavy line and it's really hard to start and hard to track a line.

No comment on shorter lengths, I think a 12" would be infinitely handier then a big 24". i've been itching to try the 12" gramercy saw at Joel's site.

I just plunked down coin for some of the HH panel saws, I'm becoming convinced that for just straight up rip sawing, a regular old panel saw is way better then a bow saw.

Even if it doesn't look nearly as cool.

[Jon Toebbe]

So I dropped by Woodcraft on my way home from picking up some free granite slabs for my forthcoming sharpening station (details to follow in another thread, once I get around to working out the details... :rolleyes: ). Yeah, sadly the Wilh. Putsch saws they had on the rack were not impressive. The fit and finish was poor, though the tensioning wingnut did its job well enough to keep the blade from spinning freely. The guy behind the counter even let me try it out on some scrap in their teaching shop. 700 mm (~27-1/2 in) is just too darn long for me to feel like I had any control. I tested the stock 5 tpi rip blade and the 9 tpi sort-of-crosscut blade.

Admittedly, that was the first time I tried to use a large bowsaw, so I'm sure inexperience played its part. On the other hand, the very first time I picked up my Tashiro Hardware japanese saw, I managed to get a straight and true cut with little effort. I think I'll just pick up one of Frank's large rip blades for when I need a faster cut, and maybe build a smaller turning saw at some point down the road.