Sawing

Sawing can be intimidating but when you learn the steps it can be enjoyable.  I love to saw metal and always see how long I can use the same blade before it gets too dull or...it breaks! (Never!)

Know the gauge of your metal and the size saw blade you should use with that blade.

My brother Tom's saw frame <3

This is an old jewelers saw frame from my older, cool brother Tom. He used this when he was in college and I was a toddler. (yes that is a dig at how old he is) He keeps everything but I was fortunate enough to receive this and a few other tools from his stash when he found out I had begun to work in metal. I have no interest in buying a new saw, even the new weird looking one that is in catalogs now, this one works great!

Load your saw blade correctly. Make sure the teeth are facing down towards the handle and facing out. 

Look carefully and use a magnifying glass if you have to!

How I load my saw:

I place my blade in the frame in the clamp closest to the handle and tighten the wing nut or thumbscrew so the blade is secure. Then I use my hip or my breast bone to compress the frame while sliding my blade into the clamp at the top of the frame, tighten the wing nut or thumbscrew and slowly release the pressure on the frame.  Check to see that your blade is held tightly in the frame by gently plucking the back side of the blade with your fingernail. You should hear a nice "ping".  You can also try it this way - place your blade in the saw and tighten both thumbscrews. Then use the third thumbscrew - the one that  is in the bottom right of the above photo, to adjust the length of the saw to tighten the blade. Then tighten and pluck!

• Keitha Anderson was the instructor at The Workspace when I was lucky enough
  to take Metals Class from her. She was a student in the Design College and she
  makes Beautiful Funky jewelry! It kills me that she doesn't have a web site. But
  keep your eye out for her!  She is extremely talented and I try to buy her pieces
  whenever I can. She exhibits at art shows and you can find her at Reiman
  Gardens Art Fair, The Octagon Art Festival and other local shows around Iowa.

Always lubricate your blade with wax, beeswax or that stuff you buy to lubricate your saw blades with.

To get started sawing, first you need to make a little notch for your blade to ride in.  You can use your bench pin or your thumbnail for this. My bench pin is a piece of 1x2 that I cut a notch out of and I don't care about cutting/drilling into it. It is a simple thing to get another piece of wood and make a new bench pin.  You can use the bench pin to cut a slice into the wood for your blade to ride in as you begin to cut your metal.  To use your thumbnail if you don't want to cut into your wood, hold your thumbnail vertical against your saw blade. Stroke your blade up several times to begin your notch in your metal.

When you start to saw, make sure you hold the saw in a vertical position and your grip on the handle of the saw should be light. There is no need to hold the saw tightly.  A loose grip also helps to keep you from pushing too hard on the saw. You would think that you would need to push forward to help the saw cut your metal but that is not the case. Let the teeth bite into the metal for you. Let the saw do the work.

When you want to cut a curve or a corner with your saw, move the metal NOT the saw.  Think of your saw kind of like a needle in a sewing machine. You have to move the fabric to sew around the corner. (Do people do that? I don't sew so I don't know! The last time I tried I broke the needle....twice!)

I wanted to make a copper  black-eyed susan

I sketched a couple on an index card and picked one to glue on my
metal with regular glue stick glue or rubber cement.

Used my favorite antique hammers that belonged  to
my dear father-in-law to hammer texture on to my copper.

Here you can see my bench pin, all cut and drilled into. It doesn't bother me :)
And my copper with my chosen drawing/template glued on

You can see I started the cut and have continued  counter-clockwise
around the flower. You can see the blade still in the flower.

Cut all around in one cut

Now I have a positive and negative image.

Use your bench pin to support the metal while cutting. Place the metal where it gets the most support from the pin while allowing you to saw. You can see the copper sawdust to the right of the flower that is resting on the pin. I spent most of my time sawing at the skinny part of the "V" on my bench pin.

CATCH your sawdust and metal scrap!  You can sell it back to suppliers!! Save every little bit!! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!!!

The paper stayed in place while sawing and easily peels off.

My black eyed susan needs an eye. I punched a disc,  sanded it...

I added the eye (center of the flower)  after doming it and connecting
with a rivet.