Frank Pellow

I really like the fact that they crimp the top of blades to make it easy to see which way is up. Little things like that show that someone at the manufacturer is using the product and/or thinking of customer usability.

I'm doing this as a hobby, so the economics of what sells don't matter to me. I have worked with lathes and scroll saws ever since High School (too many years ago). Upon retirement, when I could, at last, afford the space and expense of a big woodworking shed and many tools I decided to pick either a lathe or scroll saw to start not both and to see how things went. I chose the scroll saw because I thought that there was a greater variety of both useful and decorative items that I could make on the scroll saw. I did and do have access to lathes owned by friends so could and do occasional work on them. If I wanted to I could buy a lathe having both the space and funds. But, I think that it would mostly sit idle.

I really like the puzzle ornaments but I have no idea who designed them. Like Dan, I like the job that you have done colouring them. Well done!

Deadman for me, too.

My stack cutting remains so-so as can be seen in the two attached images. I stack cut six 3mm thick pieces of Baltic Birch plywood, with mixed results. The snowman, cut with a Flying Dutchman Ultra Reverse UR3 blades worked out VERY well. The large letters cut with a flying Dutchman New Spiral NS3 blade worked out well. The small letters first cut with a Flying Dutchman NS1 blade were a failure. I switched to Flying Dutchman NS2/0 blades after screwing up a few times and the letters cut that way are OK. I'm going to keep the top 5 pieces and hope that, once painted and mounted, the recipients will not notice the flaws. The bottom piece (in the bottom right of the photo) will be thrown out. The spiral 2/0 blades really have to work hard with this thickness of plywood and the wood has to be pushed hard against the blade, something that I am not used to doing. I also learned that, when cutting the small letters, the interior cuts should be made first, otherwise the material one is cutting is very week and apt to break.

(part 2 of 2) The black part is intended to be removed leaving a ‘To’ tab at the top left and a ‘From’ tab at the bottom right. I reduced the size so that it can fit into a “standard†9 inch by 7 inch padded envelope that can be purchased relatively cheaply in bulk from most stationery stores. I cut the prototype out of 3mm thick Baltic birch plywood and “manufactured†a piece of 2mm thick clear pine with the same width and height to use as a backer board.. I could have used a second piece of plywood for the backer but I believe that would put to total weight of the card, the envelope, and other contents over 100 grams. Once one goes over 100 grams, the postage rates (at least in Canada) take a BIG jump. In the first photo attached below, I am weighing everything, including a couple of strips of sticky-back Velcro, should the recipient wish to display the card. The combined weight is 92 grams. I completed the prototype card and gave it to Margaret. Margaret was truly surprised and delighted with both the concept of making such a card and the card itself. Attached below are photos of the card and the card’s current location where it is stuck with Velcro on the window behind our kitchen sink: The foreground board was painted with dark blue metallic acrylic paint. Appropriate parts of the background board were painted with white, copper, orange, and green acrylic paint. The two boards were glued together using Lepage’s No More Clamp glue. I’m going to attempt to stack cut 6 of these. So far, my stack cutting on other projects has been so-so, therefore I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

(part 1 of 2) Last week, I designed a 'Wishing You a Cool Yule' plaque insert for our front door. A couple of days after designing this, I got to thinking that it might be possible to make a variation of the plaque insert that is small enough and light enough to serve as a seasonal greeting card. And, sure enough, I came up with a pattern and instructions to do just that. Both patterns can now be found in the pattern library here at Scroll Saw Village. I give credit to 'bobscroll for the snowman that I utilized in these patterns.

Steve, as someone who is currently working on another Mike Williams piece, I really appreciate what you have done. It's very likely that I will tackle Mike's Old Grist Mill someday and, when I do, I think that I will try cutting two at once out of thin Baltic birch ply, just as you have done. The finished mill work is both great and inspiring!

I particularly like the colours showing through the cut-out letters. How did you do it?

Len (Lucky2), I'm keeping one set and giving the other away. The closest I ever come to selling my work is donating it to a charity auction.

(part 3 of 3) I cut, planed, and sanded most of the wood down to a 6mm thickness. The white oak was already 3mm thick when I purchased it. I used a combination of Olson 2/0 crown tooth, 5RG reverse tooth, and 9RG reverse tooth blades to cut out the ornaments and, with the exception of the Fir, everything went well. The Fir was the only soft wood in the group and it proved to be too weak at the spot where there is a protrusion at the top of the bell. This happened on both Fir ornaments. For now, I simply drilled a hole into a lower place in the bell, but I will probably replace the Fir with a different species. After cutting, some filing, and sanding I sprayed the ornament with three coats of clear gloss urethane. Attached is a photo of one set the completed ornaments: They are: • Purple Heart (snow man 1), Cherry (bell), Cumaru (dove), Jatoba (candle) • Walnut (snowflakes), White Oak (tree), Fir (candy cane), Hard Maple (snowman 2) • Zebra Wood (santa), Red Oak (reindeer), Pa-Ferro (stars), Padauk (present with ribbon) I plan to keep one set of ornaments and hang the under our fireplace mantle. I will give the other set to someone who really appreciate the beauty of natural wood (probably my sister Christine).

(part 2 of 3) Most of the cut-outs in Steve’s bells are secular but three of them are symbols of the Christian religion. Retaining the overall bell shape for all ornaments, I replaced the three cut-out symbols that have a Christian connotation with non-religious symbols found in other available patterns. I decided to stack cut the ornaments two deep. In the two attached photos, one ornament has been cut and the rest await cutting: The wood species are as follows: • Red Oak, Tiger Wood, Cumaru, Jatoba, Douglas Fir, Cherry • Purple Heart, Padauk, White Oak, Hard Maple, Pau-Ferro, Walnut Notice that the wood is horizontal on all the pieces.

I discovered a new place to purchase wood this week. It’s called Woodchucker’s and it is very close to the East Toronto Lee Valley store that I have frequented for years. The store concentrates on what they term ‘Artistic’ uses of wood and, in particular wood used for turning and for scrolling. They stock various sizes of wood and place is well laid out and each board is marked on the end with its species, length, and price. I browsed for over an hour and came away with the six boards shown in the attached photo. The species (from left to right in the photo) are Honey Locust, quarter sawn White Oak, Purple Heart, Padauk, Tiger Wood, and Pau-Ferro. To put things in perspective, the tallest and widest board is a little over a metre in length and about 20 centimetres wide. They vary in thickness from 3 to 50 millimetres. The total cost was exactly $100 which sounds like a lot but, used in small pieces in various scroll saw projects, the wood will go a long way and last me a long time. Right away, I decided to take advantage of the wide variety of wood species that I now have on hand by making a set of 12 ornaments, each utilizing a different species. Rather than the obvious choice of on of the many ’12 Days of Christmas’ plans available, I chose a set of bells with cut-outs that Steve Good offers (for free). These plans have the advantage of retaining more of the wood than many of the other plans that I looked at. And, it is the wood that I want to feature.

I like everything that I have read, heard, and seen (via video) about the saw. In particular, I like the blade changing system (which appears to be better thought out than my previous generation Excalibur EX-30l). I'm a bottom feeder and would like a better view under the item I am working on and the Jet does provide that. I will definitely keep the EX-30 but am thinking about buying this as a second saw next year. But, I will definitely find a place (probably not in Canada ) where I can try this saw in person before I buy it.

My thanks to all the pattern designers, both this year and in the past. I've never made ornaments before but, this year, I expect to make many. In fact, looking at all the great ornament designs, both in this pattern book and elsewhere, I will be tempted to make too many. In the name of this effort, we have donated locally to a charity that assists teenagers in need and internationally to Doctors Without Borders.

We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving a month ago, but I think that the American date for Thanksgiving is better than our date I wish all the American members of the Scroll Saw Village a great day and hope that you can put politics aside for the day and celebrate the many things that you can be thankful for in your country.

Hello back to you Richard -also from Canada. You will find that there a lot of Canadians here at Scroll Saw Village.

Here is another vote for The Scroll Saw Workbook by John Nelson. The ISBN number is: 1-56523-207-0. I used exercises from it to teach my 13 year old grandson scrolling last year.

They really are the friendliest fighters that I have ever seen! You did a Great Job on them!

Marg, the English name comes from the Cree name Wisakedjak. The bird is also known as the 'Gray Jay' and the 'Canada Jay'.

Len, you have got to be kidding. I can't think of a worse nuisance than the Canada Goose. It would be at the very bottom of any list of birds that I would consider. There is no change. We do not yet have a Parliament approved national bird. And, until last week, no group with any recognized standing had put forth a candidate as a national bird. I suggest that you read Robert Bateman's essay on why the Whisky Jack should be our national bird. A smmary of his essay along with other information about this bird can be found at: http://nationalbird.canadiangeographic.ca/bird.asp?name=Gray-jay&id=1026

When the Royal Canadian Geographical Society announced their nomination of the Whisky jack as our national bird last week, I was very happy with their decision. In fact, I was so happy that I purchased a scroll saw pattern (from Old Crow Woodworks). I've now cut it, painted it, and framed it and am quite happy with the result. The pattern was black and white , so I needed to wing it myself with the staining and painting. The pattern was cut into a 6mm thick quarter-sawn white oak veneer and mounted on piece of the same stained black and with the grain going in the opposite direction. It's framed with simple recycled molding painted gloss black. I'm also attaching a photo of my granddaughter, Isla, feeding a Whisky Jack on Pellow's Island in Lake Pivabiska in Northern Ontario. We have a year-round resident family of Whisky Jacks on our island.

John (JTTHECLOCKMAN), thanks for the suggestion of the exacto knife. I was using my finger nails, but use of an exacto knife would be both more accurate and faster.

I thank everyone who responded in this thread and will certainly refer back to all the good advice offered should I run into any problems with my use of the blue masking tape. By the way, the tape that I am using is made by 3M and is called 'Scotch Blue Painters Tape.#2090. It is recommended that the tape not be left on for more than 14 days. This morning I carefully removed the pattern and the tape from the Whiskey Jack pattern that was shown about to be attached in the photo that started this thread. The oak veneer that the pattern was cut out of has little or no internal strength and I had to be very aware of long "peninsulas" such as the one pointed to with the orange arrow in the attached photo. It took me about five minutes to remove the pattern and tape and I consider that to be time well spent. I now have a clean piece with no reside that I can detect.

Melanie (meflick), thanks for the information about how to order the patterns. I will contact Karen soon in order to do so.