Scroll Saw old and new

That’s a cool tool and a better story.

You have to be good to handcrank .

-- It must be jelly baby, cause jam don't shake like that...

do you use it? Do you get used to cranking with one hand and “stearing” the piece with the other?
Awesome tool, and great story!

-- ----- www.KNWoodworking.com ----- --

I tried it a couple of times. Doesn’t work too well. It works if someone else turns the crank and you move the wood. Of course you need to clamp it down. The part with the handle is a pulley so you could connect a motor to it I guess. I just like looking at it.

-- Chris Ward

Some of these old saws amaze me. It it hard enough to cut intricate patterns with a modern saw. Could you imagine having to crank or pedal while cutting though?
The saw in this photo is from Rick Hutcheson’s collection. More of his saws can be seen here. He only has a few hundred, ranging from top of the line modern ones to homemade one’s from the 1800s. Go check them out. Some of them will amaze you. Some of them will make you simply ask, “WHY?”

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

Now thats a cool tool to be left!

-- Theresa, https://sites.google.com/site/tmj65treasure/

My good friend Greg Fulton, master woodworker and inveterate tool collector, has one of these. The best theory we had was that it was from a plan in something like Popular Mechanics. Your story adds some information to the mix.

Was it perhaps a kit, with the hardware included and then the wood pieces needed to be shaped and added?

BTW, Greg’s term for the tool is “walking beam saw.”

Cool story. Perhaps there should be a thread of Inherited Tools. There would be some wonderful connections.

-- "...in his brain, which is as dry as the remainder biscuit after a voyage, he hath strange places cramm'd with observation, the which he vents in mangled forms." --Shakespeare, "As You Like It"

William, Thanks for the link to Rick Hutcheson’s collection. Unbelievable how many hand cranked saws there were. Next time I’m up in Iowa I’m going to have to stop by his shop. Looks like you could spend a day in there looking and talking. Thanks again.

-- Chris Ward

Lee, I think you may be on to something. This might have been a plan out of some magazine.
Looking at Rick Hutcheson’s website I found one that looks just like it. Looks just like my Dad’s.
It’s under the belt driven scroll saw section.

-- Chris Ward

WOW! That is so neat. Just got a NEW scrollsaw. Haven’t had a chance to use it yet, but wife has a lot of projects waiting.