What is a scroll saw?

A scroll saw is a small electric or pedal operated saw useful for cutting intricate curves where a jigsaw or coping saw is not appropriate; it is capable of creating curves with edges. It is somewhat similar to a band saw, but unlike band saws, in which the saw blade is a continuous loop, scroll saws use saw blades similar to those used by coping saws and operate through a quick reciprocating up and down motion.

Designs:

Most designs or patterns are developed from scanning a photographed image into a photo editing program like, Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw, Inkscape and Gimp.  The photograph is edited into a black and white image, then the contrast is adjusted to provide as much detail as possible, then the real fun begins.  Every inch of the photograph is then inspected for “Fall Outs” These are the pieces that would fall out if cut.  The trick is to “Bridge” the white area to a black area to prevent fallout.

Once the design has been edited, it is then printed out.  This is a highly simplified explanation of how a design is created. Some artists actually draw their own designs and then create a pattern from that drawing. One of the best pattern makers I know is Jeff Zaffino. His patterns are very complex and extremely challenging to cut. He utilizes four photo editing programs to create a design from a photograph. Another pattern maker that is making a name for himself in the scroll saw world is Mike Williams as well as Mick Shambro.

The only designs that I make from photographs are portraits of people and pets.  I leave the really difficult work to those that have the talent to create intricate designs.

How It’s Done

After I decide what design I want to cut, depending on the size of the design, I take a piece of premium A4 oak plywood, sand both sides thoroughly and then adhere the design onto the piece of plywood.  All designs are created in two colors, varying shades of grey and white, however if the grey is too dark it is difficult to see the black scroll saw blade against the black edges of the designs. To solve this problem I will copy the design to a different color like orange or red, that is the black or grey part of the design is now red or orange.  I can now very easily see the black edge of the scroll saw blade.

The next step is too drill entry holes in all of the areas that are to be cut. I use a No. 65 drill bit. The process of drilling entry holes can be and usually is very time consuming, you want to drill your holes as close to the pattern line as you can without having part of the entry hole outside of the pattern line.  Depending on the complexity of the pattern this process can take two or three hours.  I have cut some patterns that had over 1100 entry holes.

Once the entry holes are drilled, it’s time for the fun part of scroll sawing. The choice of scroll saw blades is left to the artists.  There are no hard and fast rules for which blade to use.  Basically there are two types of blades, either straight or spiral. Each type comes with different configurations. Flat blades have skipped tooth, reverse teeth, and on and on.  Spiral blades are manufactured with a twist or spiral to them.  Visit www.mikesworkshop.com to see all of the different blades available.

I use a 2/0 spiral blade in all of my cuttings. The 2/0 blade has a thickness of .008 and a diameter of .027, that is about the size of a No.5 pencil lead.  I find that the spiral blade gives me better control and accuracy in my cutting, including straight lines.

Remember all of those entry holes we drilled?  Now it is time to feed our blade into those entry holes and make our cuts,,,,,,,,, one hole at a time, put the blade in, make the cut, remove the blade, move to the next entry hole. Keep doing this until the design is completely cut. Depending again on the complexity of the design, this can take anywhere from 40 to 200 plus hours. AND if you make a mistake, you throw the piece you are working on away and start all over.  I have made my share of designer firewood!

Once the cutting is finished, I remove all of the fuzzies off of the back, apply a coat of clear on the front, and then attach a piece of black felt onto the back of the cutting.  This really makes the details of the cutting stand out.

I then determine what size of frame I want the art to be displayed in, cut the raw stock of Oak, plane it to the thickness I want, take it to my router table and put the profile I want on the framing members.  I then sand all framing members, cut them to length, miter the corners, glue and pocket screw the corners together. Then stain and finish the framing members.

I then decide what colors I want to matt the art piece with, cut the matts, both upper and lower, cut a V groove in the top matt, apply the brass title plate to the top matt.

I then assemble the artwork with the matting and glazing into the finished frame, install the backer piece and secure everything to the frame.  I then apply a dust cover on the back of the frame, install hanging hardware and wall protectors, check the front of the picture for any specks of dust trapped under the glazing, and by Golly, we’ll call it good to go.

This is how I do it, other artists (yes Scroll Sawing is an Art) have different techniques, but this is what works for me.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my site and if you have any questions, please feel free to call or email me.