Frank Pellow

Thanks Scrappile. I mentioned the blades that I am using (3/0 New Spiral Flying Dutchman) in my post but I guess you missed that little detail.

I’ve learned enough by the responses to threads: http://www.scrollsawvillage.com/topic/17403-how-do-you-saw-an-embedded-line-without-leaving-a-noticable-entry-hole/ and: http://www.scrollsawvillage.com/topic/17138-spiral-blades-butchers-tool-or-experts-only/ to encourage me to attempt a complicated scene making use of 3/0 New Spiral Flying Dutchman blades. I did try a spiral blade or two when I first purchased my scroll saw about 12 years ago, but found them very hard to control and very quickly gave up on them. This time, I know more about such blades and how to use them and, so far, they are working out OK. I look upon the use of spiral blades as requiring a new set of techniques, kind of like the difference in techniques needed to operate a band saw and a table saw. I chose the Old Mill pattern by ‘neptun’ for my experiment and I am cutting it out of a 6 millimetre thick white oak surfaced panel with a particle board core. So far, I have worked on it for about two hours and the project is about one quarter complete. I am happy with the way things are going. I doubt that I will ever get to prefer them to “regular†blades but I expect to be able to recognize the places where spiral blades are the more appropriate tool.

I have experienced all of these, but #10 is the one that seems to be particularly applicable to me.

Great job Jim! I'm encouraged to attempt either this pattern or something similar early in the new year. By the way, I would run the grain the other way too. And, I will probably get a chance to try a horizontal grain.

I received the #70 twist bits and Flying Dutchman New Spiral #3/0 blades from Mike's Workshop very soon after placing my (international) order. Thanks Mike. Today I gave them a try. As others have said, the spiral blades take some getting used to. I find that it is difficult to cut a line that does not wobble. However, after about an hours practice, I managed to cut some decent embedded lines. I then showed them to my wife and she could not tell where I had drilled #70 size entry holes. Again, I thank everyone for their help.

Lots of Trivets: I mentioned in the post that started this thread that I had already made about 10 trivets. They are my "default" gift for the winter solstice holiday season this year and, by the end of today, I will have made 23 in total. I'm attaching a photo showing the final (for 2015) group of 10 trivets in various stages of completion. I used a somewhat different (at least different for me) technique for these. That is, I pasted a photo of one of my previous completed trivets to a piece of maple then used that photo both to see where to saw and to see where to carve. I'm doing one other different thing for the double oak leaf trivets and that is to stain one of the two leaves. Margaret (my wife) told me that it was difficult to see the two different leaves in the first double-oak leaf trivet I made. This makes the separation clear. I'm also attaching a photo of that trivet.

OK, based on 'JustLarry' and 'Scrappie''s recommendations, I have ordered some #70 Twist Bits and some Flying Dutchman New Spiral 3/0 blades. I hope that they will do the job for me.

Great advise, thanks. I just tried what you suggest and it works well for me.

OK, I have some follow-up questions. There has been lots of information here about smaller drill bits and the smallest saw blade that I have heard about is 3/0. But, I found an Olson chart that says that a 3/0 blade requires a 1/32 inch hole. I found out on the project that started this thread that a 1/32 inch hole can be seen. Is the Olson chart wrong? Are there smaller blades and, if so where?

WOW, lots of responses! I thanks all of you who responded to my question and gave me good advise and information. I will summarize what I learned: As I suspected, this is a common practise and it even has a name -"veining" There is a whole other system of drill bit sizing that I did not know existed. I have many drill bits but they are all either metric or imperial. By the way, I don't think it's good that there is yet another measuring system but what I think hardly matters. There is at least one saw blade size smaller than 2/0, and that is 3/0. I have yet to find out where I can get that size in Canada, but I will search around later this morning. There is a technique called "feathering out" that can be used to sort of hide the hole. MrsN was even kind enoght to illustrate this technique with a drawing. Lots of people use a drill press to insert holes and one can get really small collets for these really small drill presses. By the way, my drill press is a "monster" standing over two metres high and on a wheeled based so that I can move it around my woodworking shed. I didn't know that such small drill presses existed. Receiving this voluminous, rapid, and valuable response here on the Scroll Saw Village prompted me to pay the annual fee and become a "supporter" of the site.

All the patterns I have attempted to saw since I took up this hobby a couple of months ago have saw lines that emanate at a open area of the pattern. I have yet to see a line that is all on its own but I except that they exist on some patterns. Yesterday I was working on the Purple Martin pattern from Sheila Landry shown in photo #1 below. The pattern called for a big hole that I have shaded with pencil. I decided that I did not want to have such a hole and figured that I could accomplish this desired effect without a hole if I did not cut the part of the line that I have shaded in orange. But, this left me with the need for two entry holes for the saw blade. The smallest drill bit that I could find was 1/32 of an inch and a 2/0 blade will fit through that hole. I have three different electric drills but none of them could hold a drill bit that small. Lee Valley sells what they can a “pin vise†(catalogue 81D40.27) and, using this, I was able to drill the two holes that I needed. See photo #2 below. I drilled both holes at the intersection of two lines where I thought they would be less noticeable. Photo #3 was taken just after the saw blade was inserted through the first hole and photo #4 was taken after the sawing had been completed. The two entry holes can be seen if one examines the bird quite closely but I think that, once the bird has been painted, the holes will be quite difficult to spot. I am seeking advice as to a better way to make this type of cut.

Welcome Pete. I am new here myself and, in the short time I have belonged, have had several questions answered. Plans in your head are the best -I do that all the time. Where do you live in the UK? We lived just north of Portsmouth for several years.

Lucky, I guess you didn't notice that I said in my post that the charges are in US funds. As to prices, I think that they are quite good. For example, I paid 99 cents US for each 2oz jar of acrylic paint.. Of course, since they are sourcing the order in Canada, you do pay Goods and Services tax of 13%. The shipping for what was about a 1 kilo package was $13 (US).

I found a place to order this namely www.artistsClub.com. Although this is a USA site and one pays in USA dollars, they have a warehouse in Burlington Ontario and ship from there if the destination is within Canada. I placed an order for the Staining & Antiquing Medium as well as some brushes and some acrylic paint and received my order six calendar days after placing it. Good value and good service!

That's a nice little business that you have going!

Don, it does look like much of the patterns I see at Judy Gale Robert's web site would give me lots of opportunity to do some carving. Thanks for the reference.

First of all, I thank DWSUDEKUM, merlin, lawson56, newfie, scrolling Stever, bobscroll, amazingken, penguin, Dan, Lucky2, and Jessie for their compliments. The bird plaques have now all been painted and the 8 that I am giving my 4 granddaughters have been personalized on the back. I'm attaching a photo of the back of one plaque showing how they were personalized. I'm also attaching a photo of the front of 6 of the completed plaques. One granddaughter is getting the starling-robin pair, one will receive the cardinal-robin pair, and two obtain a starling-bluejay pair.

herrwood, Steve's 'ball in box' is not the kind of carving that I was thinking about, but it would be a challenging project. I just might take a stab at it some day.

That looks great GrampaJim! It gives me something to aspire to in this scroll-sawing craft that is relatively new to me.

:idea:Lucky2, I guess that you are correct about that. And, yes, one could burn some of the lines as well (or instead of). I expect that their are artistic guidelines that help one determine whether certain lines should be sawed, cut, or burned. I guess I will experiment and see if I can come up with some guidelines that work for me. Heck, I might even figure out how to throw some stained glass into the mix.

I found one such plan at: http://www.homeathome.homehardware.ca/en/index/home-projects/project-ideas/home-at-home/fall-projects/canadian-maple-trivet.htm This is a plan for a trivet made out of maple and showing three maple leaves. It was designed by Rob Brown who is the editor of Canadian Woodworking magazine. I've made about 10 such trivets this autumn. I also used the concept and made some smaller trivets depicting birch leaves and oak leaves. I finished all my trivets with several coats of Polymerized Tung Oil (available at Lee Valley). The attached photo shows three of my trivets. They are made from hard maple and are about 12 millimetres thick. Since I am a much more experienced carver than scroll-sawer, I really like the idea of combining the two. I looked for patterns and plans but have not found any. If you know of any plans or photos that combine the two crafts, please let me know where to find them.

Thanks Marg. The blue ones are Blue Jays. They often overwinter in Southern Ontario and the sight of them on our bird feeder on a snowy winter day is something I really enjoy. The other three are: Sparrow, North American Robin (which is really a type of thrush), and Cardinal. They, too, are all common visitors to our garden.

Thanks oldhudson. I'm mostly using acrylic paints but am also experimenting with various water-based stains and washes.

As you can see from the attached photo, right now I have many (16) mini-bird plaques (Sheila Landry's patterns SLD237 & SLD238) at various stages of completion. I'm using these to experiment with the use of various wood and colour combinations, to practice painting and staining techniques, and to practice sawing and assembly techniques. Eventually, each of my four granddaughters will be given two plaques each and something(?) will be done with the ones left over.

Thanks sprithorse. It does hinder me; but it will not stop me.