Keychains

Good stocking suffers.
How long did it take to make one? I have never used a scroll saw, which one do you use?

-- "I never met a board I didn't like!"

Wow those are cool,that’s a very good messing around.

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

Thanks for the compliment. Each one took about 30-45 minutes, start to finish. It was also my first try using a spiral scroll saw blade. They are VERY unforgiving. I have a Porter Cable scroll saw.

-- -Chris, Pennsylvania

Messing around eh?

Well what is the one you have slipped in thinking we would not notice, that has a different name on each side?

Reference image 1 of 2 top right. (Julie Millay)

I would be most interested in how you “messed around” and produced it.

I simply put my wife’s first and last name on each side and cut it out. Like I said, saw it on one of Steve Good’s videos on YouTube and wanted to see how it would look. Steve used “Tony Stewart”.... didn’t think my wife would like that as much though ;)

-- -Chris, Pennsylvania

Very Nice Indeed!! Thanks for Posting!

Rick

-- ENJOY YOURSELVES GUYS!!!

Nice work. I really like them.

As a fellow scroller, I’d love to know what you mean by “unforgiving” when talking about the spiral blade. I use spirals on almost a daily basis and wondered exactly what you were saying.

What kind of finish, if any, did you use?
I’ve made similar items. I’ve tried Danish Oil, polyurethane, and no finish. The danish oil seemed to hold up better over time.

-- http://wddsrfinewoodworks.blogspot.com/

WOW! A Daily Top 3. I am grateful and humbled to say the least. And thank you for the compliments as well.

William- I simply gave them a good dunking in some mineral oil. Seems to work well on most of my projects and you can always “spruce” it up with some more should it need it in the future. As for my “unforgiving” comment; It is my opinion that with a standard blade, you have a little leeway should you apply any pressure from the sides while scrolling. I find that even the slightest bit of pressure in any direction on the spiral blade will send it in that direction (look closely at the “legs” of my letter “M”’s.) I hope that explination made sense. I am thinking I will be using them a lot more (spiral bits) as I love the precision it creates, especially in tight turns. With practice, I am hoping it becomes a non-issue for me as I am sure it already is for you. Thanks again!

-- -Chris, Pennsylvania

I use more spirals than anything else. As I’m sure you already know, some people will disagree with me on this, but in my opinion, spirals have to be ran tighter than most other types of blades.
Yes, now that I know what you mean, I know exactly what you mean. I often stack cut four and five layers at a time. When doing this, if you don’t ratchet the tension up as tight as you can, the bottom layer will be visibly different than the top one. So yes, I agree that, if ran the same tension as most blades, they are in fact unforgiving.
Of course, running the blade tighter is a lesson in itself. If you run them too tight, they break too easily. So, through experience, I had to learn that fine line between them being too tight, and just tight enough that they’ll do right without breaking.

If you ever get used to spirals though, you’ll love them. As I said, I use a lot of them. I usually keep on hand spiral Flying Dutchman blades in sizes of #2/0, #3, #5, #7, and #9. I try to keep at least a gross of each on hand, and two gross of #3s, since those are the ones I use most. The only time I use flat blades anymore is when I’m cutting something that is more than three quarter of an inch thick solid wood.

-- http://wddsrfinewoodworks.blogspot.com/

nice work and great gifts