Hand made fret saw blade

[JohnPW]

Hand made fret saw blade: get a bit of wire, hit it with something hard and sharp (chisel, plane iron etc) along its length!

Now why didn't I think of that!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwKq4w8wpJk

 

[MIGNAL]

Done it, many years ago. I was curious how they could possibly make a very fine blade (in the 16 th and 17 th centuries) given some of the very fine marquetry work of the period.
I used a chisel but I hardly got what one would call a fine TPI. Worked but only just.

 

[JohnPW]

I think instead of randomly bashing the wire, as in the video, you could put the chisel on the wire and hit it with a mallet and so on, which will give whatever TPI you need. Of course which is what people have done.

 

[xy mosian]

Now that is a bow saw. Thanks for putting that up. Interesting that he only appeared to 'sharpen?' and use a small part of the blade.
xy