Sourcing Blades for Scroll Saws and Jewellers, Piercing, Coping, & Junior Hack Saws

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AES

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AFAIK, all scroll saws use 5 inch long blades. The only exception is Dremel which uses 3 inch blades (I think). Some scroll saws can also take blades a bit longer than 5 inches, such as coping saw blades and junior hack saw blades.

There are several good blade manufacturers including Niqua (German I think) and Pegas (Swiss).

Niqua blades can be bought from Hobbies UK and, I think, from Hegner UK.

Models & Hobbies UK | About Us | Suppliers Since 1895 | Hobbies

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Pegas can be bought from Axminster Tools UK:

Axminster Tools - Power Tools, Hand Tools, Woodworking, Metalworking & more!

Here's a chart showing the basics of which type/size of blade to use, according to the job you're doing:

View attachment No_Fail_Blade_Chart_206122387.pdf

And here's 3 or 4 blade charts from Pegas, including metal cutting scroll saw blades, scroll saw blades for wood, and coping saw and junior hack saw blades:

View attachment Pegas Metal Scroll Blades.pdf

View attachment Pegas Multi Scroll Blades.pdf

View attachment Pegas Scroll Blades Wood Rev etc Blades.pdf

Just double click on the chosen chart and it will appear on your screen. If you want to, you can print it yourself from there.

Above Pegas charts include both pinned and pinless blades.

HTH

Edit for P.S. 1. I forgot. There is also the Flying Dutchman brand blades. I don't know where they're made but they seem to be only available by direct (self) importing from the USA. I've tried them but personally find them no better or worse than Pegas blades. Since importing from the USA is a bit of a hassle (not too bad though) I stick to Pegas myself. "Your mileage may vary"!

P.S. 2: Normally sellers sell blades in either packs of 12, half gross (72), and gross (144).The gross packs obviously come a bit cheaper pro rata. Some sellers allow you to mix blade sizes/types to make up the half gross or gross price breaks.

Again, HTH, sorry I forgot in the above post.
 
I normally use flying Dutchman blades from Mikes workshop in the states,about £35 including postage for 144 blades and they do allow you to order a selection of blades for the 144 blade price. Recently I have been doing a lot of scrolling on 30 mm pine boards and could not wait the postage time from the states, so bought niqua blades from Hegner £21 + including postage for 144 blades, and am using twice as many as I would flying Dutchman,, it would have been more cost effective to have waited the postage time, the Niqua is not a re brand name for the flying Dutchman, they are a different blade altogether, also FD have a bigger selection of blades, including reverse tooth modified geometry and ultra reverse blades which leave less fuzzies on the back to sand off, and a bigger selection of spiral blades even an ultra reverse one, also the niqua have a coarser tooth pitch and are inclined to snatch at the wood, so far I have been able to dodge the vat import duty on the blades from the states but come the 1 st of Jan that could alter depending who wins their election, but an extra %20 wont break the bank, I have tried all the other brands of blades with varying results but keep coming back to the FD - no I am not employed by FD - and will order some more next week sorry if this is long winded but hope this helps, most of my scrolling work is done on wood from 15 mm to 32 mm again mostly reclaimed pine, and occasionally I stack cut 3 mm plywood, it seems every time someone mentions blade brands it open a can of worms, the only thing i can suggest is you try them all and take your pick of the one that suits you best, so have fun and make lots and lots of sawdust

take care

John
 
I'm sorry John but according to Mike Moorlach (the Flying Dutchman) he was the importer of the Niqua blades into the North American Continent and was allowed the name change as part of the deal. If and when I can find the post in which he said it I'll post it.
Niqua have a huge range of blades, search for a copy of their catalogue
 
Dremel make or badge a few different scroll saws

The only one that takes 3" blades (if you can call it a scroll saw) is the Dremel Moto-saw

It only takes pinned 3" blades which are very expensive compared to standard scroll saw blades

On cost of blades, its worth knowing that pinned blades are often packed in 6's whereas pinless are in 12s, often for the same price (ie twice as expensive for the same quantity)

There are other makers of blades, often sold by the DIY stores, on ebay or the likes of Silverline, these should be avoided if at all possible, they are rather agricultural compared to better brands such as Pegas

As has been said, Flying Dutchman are rebranded Niqua
 
I'm sorry John but according to Mike Moorlach (the Flying Dutchman) he was the importer of the Niqua blades into the North American Continent and was allowed the name change as part of the deal. If and when I can find the post in which he said it I'll post it.
Niqua have a huge range of blades, search for a copy of their catalogue

FD blades are manufactured by Niqua, yes, but they are very different from the Niqua "Yellow Label" blades sold by Hobbies. As you say, Niqua do a huge range of blades, of which Hobbies in the UK only sell one 'marque'.
 
hi I have recently been using Niqua blades, # 3 and #5 and in truth, they re not a patch on flying Dutchman, I started on this project with niqua but had to revert to fd #3 and #5 flst and spiral blades, to finish it.its 1 inch 25 mm thick pine board
 

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just ordered 420 blades Flying Dutchman from Mikes workshop in the states 144 of each #3/ #5 ultra reverse straight and 72 each of new spirals blades teeth all round the blade#3/ #5, total cost including postage was £80, I may yet have to pay import duty , the price per blade is exactly the same as buying niqua blades from hegner UK, and in my opinion Flying Dutchman are a far superior blade.
 
My experiences with scrolling is not that big but i learned one thing: No sawbrand i tried did the cut straight forward but always in a angle. Even Hegner's bladesets do this.
Pegas does the cut straight forward, its a real difference and i will never go for whatever other brand.
I did a google translation of what i found on the site of my Pegas seller:

What distinguishes this series of scroll saw blades from others is that the Pégas blades are milled. This means that saw blades are the same on both sides compared to punched saw blades (which are pushed one way). They are sharper, more accurate and therefore give a very nice end result.
 
just ordered 420 blades Flying Dutchman from Mikes workshop in the states 144 of each #3/ #5 ultra reverse straight and 72 each of new spirals blades teeth all round the blade#3/ #5, total cost including postage was £80, I may yet have to pay import duty , the price per blade is exactly the same as buying niqua blades from hegner UK, and in my opinion Flying Dutchman are a far superior blade.
Flying Dutchman are Niqua blades, rebranded by Mike Moorlach as part of the deal when he acquired the distribution rights of Niqua blades for the American Market.
 

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