spiral blades for frets

[dogman]

could someone please tell me if you can use spiral blades to cut frets. i am new to scrollsawing and would like to try my hand at cutting frets. I would also appreciate any other suggestions that I might can receive for fret cutting.
Thanks
Dogman :) :)

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

Dogman

The short answer to your question is yes. There are different schools of thought here though. There are those that hate spirals and those that love them. I am in the catagory I will only use them when I have to do to some large piece I can not spin on my 26" saw which is very rare. Many people use spirals for portrait work which has many tight turns and fragile pieces so they do not have to move the wood as much. Now the cut is a litle more ragged in my opinion but that is good for portait work because you rarely have straight lines. There is a learning curve to use them as there is with flat blades. Now if you start out learning spirals the learning curve is less than if you went from flat blade work to using spirals. Now the technology of the spiral blade has gotten much better and there is a spiral blade made under the Flying Dutchman name and you can get them from Mike M at www.mikesworkshop.com He can explain the use better and in fact if you go to his web site you will get a lot of good info about blades. Give him a try and he can be of some more help.

One other thing I noticed in your question is you ask about fret work. Well fret work is nothing more than a bunch of holes in a solid piece of wood or other medium and scrolled to a design. Most people use flat blades to do this. Take a look through the galleries and see all the fine work. As an example you can look through mine JTTHECLOCKMAN and all work there was done with flat blades. You need to get yourself a beginners book and go through the excerises and learn the use of the saw and you too will be able to cut with the masters. And you can then make your own choice as to which blade is more confortable to use. Good luck and keep the questions coming.

[C Jevnikar]

Hi Dogman :D JT is right in his wise reply! Also, try to find a copy of the scroll saw book "Fun & Easy Scroll Saw Projects" by Patrick Spielman (about $20). I've got a copy and it gives a lot of examples, answers, and challenging projects for beginning in scroll sawing. peace,woodchux

[JoeScroller]

I agree with JTCLOCKMAN, I don't like to use them very much. One use I have found for them is when making dovetails the table can be turned at an angle and then you can cut them from the side and have a precise cut(many books that I have seen have you using a chisel or a copeing saw). For fretwork examples look at wildwooddesigns, they have some easy fretwork for beginers, I also have the Spielman book that I bought at a local bookstore for $17.95. It has pretty good examples of lots of different concepts.

Here is a picture of what I was trying to say.(attachment)

[bobbydee]

could someone please tell me if you can use spiral blades to cut frets. i am new to scrollsawing and would like to try my hand at cutting frets. I would also appreciate any other suggestions that I might can receive for fret cutting.
Thanks
Dogman :) :)

I use spiral blades exclusively for fretwork. I don't think the fine and sharp corners can be made as easy with a flat blade. Good luck!

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

I use spiral blades exclusively for fretwork. I don't think the fine and sharp corners can be made as easy with a flat blade. Good luck!
Bobbydee,

Nice to see you posting in here. I am not quite sure of the answer you posted. There are those that use spirals exclusively and you must be one. I applaud you because I can not get the true hang of them and when I am forced to use them I have to really work at it. For me a flat blade is seond nature. You mention sharp corners. The physics of a round blade can not leave as sharp a corner as a flat blade. But with the use of small spirals you can hardly tell the difference. The same goes for using a flat blade and people spining the blade on an inside corner as opposed to going at it from 2 directions. It can be small enough that the eye does not see it. Whatever blade you get accustomed to use you can produce some fine work. It all comes down to practice.

[ndtroll]

I am one of those who will use a spiral blade only when I have to.... usually on large pieces that I can not spin in my saw
I think they are harder to contol.... my personal opinion

[William Young]

I am one that also uses spirals only when I have to if I can't spin the wood within the limits of my 20.5" saw.

I have been using Pegas flat blades for the last six months or so because I have found them to be the best blades on the market bar non. I have tried all the different styles of flat ones from Pegas but not the spirals. So today my curiosity was getting the best of me so I put a Pegas spiral blade in my saw for the first time. OH my gosh ! ! . . what an improvement over any other spiral I had ever used. They are extremely sharp and leave a smoother inside cut and create less sawdust than any other spiral blade I have used. But as far as tracking perfectly on the line in coarse grained hardwoods like oak there is no such thing as a spiral that will go across the hard/soft grain pattern without some wandering and these were no different in that respect. I tried solid oak, solid walnut and solid birch.
Then I tried a whole bunch of cutting on 3/4" Baltic Birch plywood and that is where I realized the superiority of the Pegas spirals . They cut like butter and because of the oposing grain direction of the layers of wood they tracked on the line with ease. I pushed it to the limit and I know for sure any other spiral I have tried would have broke pushing it through 3/4" wood like that but it never broke . It just kept on slicing through the wood.
But just because I have found what I feel is the ultimate in spiral blades doesn't mean that I am going to be using them on a regular basis because there is no substitution for the quality of cut and ease of tracking that you can got from a flat blade .
Cheers.
W.Y.

[WoodmanPlus]

It has been a while for me on the scroll forum. I have been busy with pens and garden and such.
I used to hate,hate,spiral blades,but when I had a large project to do,about 3 years ago.I was complianing about the spiral blades at our meeting.
Our Vice president,hoom is a lady,sat there and let us rant on and fineally she said in a very quit voice,use the spiral blade like a sander.
WOW it really does work.