Spiral blades

[finneyb]

Just broke my first blade, a spiral, best part of 30p down the drain
Was going good with straight blades none broken and thought I'd try a spiral.

Tensioning was difficult blade kept slipping out of the clamp. Solved that by not using the tensioning lever and just relying on the knob adjuster.

Stroke is set at 20mm ie longer stroke

Saw AWFS18
Blade Pegas No5 spiral
Wood 12mm scrap, pine?

Any thoughts?

Brian

 

[scrimper]

Sorry to be negative but my advice would be "don't use spiral blades" they are very difficult to control and I do not see any time where one would be preferred over a normal blade.

(Only thing that I can see that they might be useful for is where you need to cut a piece that is too long or awkward for a conventional blade.)

 

[finneyb]

I didn't find then difficult to control, but because I'm new I still need to concentrate when using a straight blade ie its not second nature. They are a lot wider cut than the straight blade, much to be expected.

Wonder if there will be a market for an opened pack of spiral blades on the For Sale Board?

Brian

 

[martinka]

My first two portraits were done with spiral blades, before I knew they were "a bad thing", and I had no problem at all with them. No doubt if I tried them now, I'd find them difficult to control because I have been using straight blades for 6 months.

Martin.

 

[ChrisR]

It is one blade that I could not get to grips with, also as Brian said, cuts a very wide kerf.

Can’t really see the advantage of use, having said that I did see a very intricate and large screen that had been cut using only spiral blades, it was a few years ago, so I can’t remember who the scroll artist was or where I saw it. #-o

Take care.

Chris R.