Coping saw - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A coping saw is a type of hand saw

Hand saw

In woodworking and carpentry, hand saws, also known as "panel saws", "fish saws", are used to cut pieces of wood into different shapes. This is usually done in order to join the pieces together and create a wooden object. They usually operate by having a series of sharp points of some substance...

used to cut intricate external shapes and interior cutouts in woodworking or carpentry. It is widely used to cut moldings

Molding (decorative)

Molding or moulding is a strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. It is traditionally made from solid milled wood or plaster but may be made from plastic or reformed wood...

to create coped

Coping (joinery)

Coping or scribing is the woodworking technique of shaping the end of a moulding or frame component to neatly fit the contours of an abutting member...

rather than miter

Miter joint

A miter joint , sometimes shortened to miter, is a joint made by bevelling each of two parts to be joined, usually at a 45° angle, to form a corner, usually a 90° angle...

joints. It is occasionally used to create fretwork

Fretwork

Fretwork is an interlaced decorative design that is either carved in low relief on a solid background, or cut out with a fretsaw, coping saw, jigsaw or scroll saw. Most fretwork patterns are geometric in design. The materials most commonly used are wood and metal. Fretwork is used to adorn...

though it is not able to match a fretsaw

Fretsaw

The fretsaw is a saw used for intricate cutting work which often incorporates tight curves. Although the coping saw is often used for similar work, the fretsaw is capable of much tighter radii and more delicate work...

in intricacy of cut, particularly in thin materials. Coping saw blades are always thicker and much coarser cutting than typical fretsaw blades and many others of its family members.

A coping saw consists of a thin, hardened steel blade, stretched between the ends of a square, c-shaped, springy-iron frame to which a handle is attached. The blade is easily removed from the frame so that the blade can be passed through a drill

Drill

A drill or drill motor is a tool fitted with a cutting tool attachment or driving tool attachment, usually a drill bit or driver bit, used for drilling holes in various materials or fastening various materials together with the use of fasteners. The attachment is gripped by a chuck at one end of...

ed hole in the middle of a piece of wood. The frame is then re-attached to the blade and the cut starts from the middle of the piece. Long cuts perpendicular to the edge of the material are possible but the shallow depth of the frame rather limits how far from the edge one may cut. The much deeper frame of the fretsaw is more useful for cutting well away from the edge but conversely cannot manage the thicker materials commonly cut by the coping saws.

The coping saw blade is removable by partially unscrewing the handle. The blade is prevented from rotating by means of the short, steady bar provided where the blade is attached. Loosening the handle also allows the blade to be rotated relative to the frame as desired. Carefully aligning the finger steady bars at the top and bottom of the blade ensures that the thin blade is straight and not twisted along its length. Retightening the handle tensions the blade and locks it at the desired angle relative to the frame. The short steady bar nearest the handle is held securely between finger and thumb while the handle is tightened to ensure the blade remains at the desired angle. Unlike the fretsaw the coping saw blade has holding pins which lock securely into the angled slots of the rotatable blade holders.

The direction of the cut is quite easy to change because of the thinness of the blade. Gentle curves are achieved by slowly turning the whole frame by means of the handle while continuing to cut steadily. When necessary the blade can also be rotated with respect to the frame to make sharper curves in the material being cut. The teeth on a coping saw blade should normally face the handle. (i.e."backwards" as compared with most other Western saws); the action of pulling the coping saw allows the frame to remain in tension (and thus reduces blade breakages). This is the opposite to most other saws which only cut in the "push" direction. Normally the coping saw is used in the vertical position and reciprocated by hand power for the maximum stroke possible without striking the material with the frame. This takes much practice. It may also be used in all other attitudes when the work requires it but even greater skill is required. Blade breakage is fortunately much rarer than with a fretsaw.

A Coping saw (with the correct blade) can also be used to cut through aluminium tubing and other metal objects, though a Hacksaw

Hacksaw

A hacksaw is a fine-tooth saw with a blade under tension in a frame, used for cutting materials such as metal or plastics. Hand-held hacksaws consist of a metal arch with a handle, usually a pistol grip, with pins for attaching a narrow disposable blade. A screw or other mechanism is used to put...

is much more efficient than a coping saw for this task. The thin blade tends to make wavy cuts in thick materials unless skill is achieved by long practice on a wide variety of materials of varying thicknesses. The stroke length before the frame strikes the material above or below is the limiting factor in the maximum thickness of material. The work becomes progressively more difficult and tiring with increasing thickness of material.

A Coping saw is often used with a v-board, also known as a birdsmouth board, which is a flat board with a "V" shape cutout in one end. In use, the v-board is clamped to the bench so that the section with the cutout hangs over the edge. This allows the work to be held down flat whilst shapes are cut into it. Either the work or the saw frame may be rotated. The V-cutout allows the coping saw blade to pass through the work unimpeded. This technique is common in marquetry

Marquetry

Marquetry is the art and craft of applying pieces of veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns, designs or pictures. The technique may be applied to case furniture or even seat furniture, to decorative small objects with smooth, veneerable surfaces or to freestanding pictorial panels...

. Pressed, chrome-plated, steel V-boards are also quite common though care must be taken to avoid damaging the blade teeth by excessive rubbing on this hard material.

See also