Advice on the right tool to cut small intricate items out of wood

[Madera]

Hello everyone,
I am on a look out for a wood Saw that will allow me to cut intricate pieces of wood intended to make into jewellery.

Any advice/ direction will be helpful.

Something like this -

 

[niall Y]

A jewellers saw and a lot of skill - being Asian might also help Alternatively a scroll saw ( basically a motorised fret saw ) This will allow you to concentrate on holding and guiding the wood rather than trying to keep a jewellers saw running truly vertical and making it follow a line.

 

[Ollie78]

There is also motorized jewellers saws, like mini scrollsaws really. Depends how small you want to go you can get some pretty skinny scrollsaw blades.

 

[loftyhermes]

I would have thought a treadle fret/scrollsaw would be better than an electric one as the speed can be controlled better and is a lot slower, more like a had saw.

 

[Rhossydd]

Have a look at this page, good hand saws at various prices and the blades to go with them.
https://workshopheaven.com/tools/saws/jeweller-coping-saws/

 

[Blister]

With the correct blade any good quality scroll / fret saw will bo what you require.

 

[user 42626]

I have a customer who bought one of my refurbished Hegners for jewellery work, they chose a later type with the round table insert.
You can fit Hegners own plastic insert and make the aperture hole small enough to minimise tear through.
With later models you can also adjust the linkage to a shorter blade stroke too.
Other recommendations when working with thin materials is to sandwich them between some thicker wood to keep distortion or damage minimal

 

[user 42626]

I stock new table inserts from Hegner.
Notice these motors for Hegners have various flywheels. One on the left is single stroke, later models use a better smoother running flywheel which has 2 holes to vary stroke length
As for quality, my oldest Hegner is 43 years old and still superb

 

[Sachakins]

Maybe invest in a laser or fine cut cnc machine?

 

[Blister]

Maybe invest in a laser or fine cut cnc machine?

Original question was this , " I am on a look out for a wood Saw that will allow me to cut intricate pieces of wood intended to make into jewellery."

Can't see a lazer allowing a personal cut.

 

[user 42626]

Original question was this , " I am on a look out for a wood Saw that will allow me to cut intricate pieces of wood intended to make into jewellery."

Can't see a lazer allowing a personal cut.

A good scroll saw with pinless blade clamps will allow very fine blades for wood and metal

 

[Sachakins]

Original question was this , " I am on a look out for a wood Saw that will allow me to cut intricate pieces of wood intended to make into jewellery."

Can't see a lazer allowing a personal cut.

I understand your response, but just throwing ideas into the mix to broaden options.

But the thread headline was...

Advice on the right tool to cut small intricate items out of wood.

So not defined as a requirement for a saw in the title.


I've done the fine work with a decent scroll saw and blade, sadly it was just not economical for jewelery, very few people will pay the price for the time and effort demands to make individual pieces nowadays.

 

[Madera]

Thank you for all of your advice. Much appreciated.

 

[XTiffy]

I would first invest in a piercing saw with piercing saw blades which are much finer than fretsaw blades. Also no noise very little dust and no electricity used!
The frame is adjustable for blade length. A jeweller's saw has a much narrower throat than a piercing saw (though the terms now seem to be interchangable).
I would use Vallorbe blades (Swiss) as very good quality. Common blade sizes (teeth) are1/0 through to 8/0 (finest). What matters with intricate cutting is thickness of blade and how many teeth within the thickness of the material you are cutting. I carried out a great deal of marquetry restoration work with this method in my restoration career.

 

[Madera]

Thank you