1) Rub the blade with beeswax often
2) The cutting stroke should be on the way down, so the blade needs to be in the right way.
3) Blade should be vertical when cutting
This is the technique I was taught, but I am only a newbie too, relatively speaking.
You're using too coarse a blade, or not lubricating it, or your bench peg is not right.
Just to confuse you some more I find that Paraffin wax (candle wax) or one of the proprietary products better than beeswax, bees wax can be a bit sticky for this application
I like to use 6/0 blades - fine enough for most jobs.
Some lubricant - which can be something solid like cutlube - or if you're odd like me, I have a fine needle bottle filled with hair oil - which smells great.
Hold the metal very firmly down on both sides of the saw blade with your fingers - so that it absolutley cannot move vertically with the up and down action of sawing. Make sure to keep your fingers and hands out of the path of the saw!
Don't apply much, if any, forward pressure when sawing - just try to rely on the downward motion chipping away at the metal.
In general try to keep your saw as vertical as possible for piercing fine detail - though sometimes it is easier to make the initial cut or saw straight lines with the top of the saw slanting forwards a little.
Try to hold the saw with the loosest grip possible. It is really easy to subconciously tighten your grip and apply too much forward force - especially when you're either trying to get it done quickly or are frustrated by the whole process.
These are things I usually have to keep in mind if I keep snapping blades.
If the saw keeps going in a weird, uncontrollable direction - check the saw blade tension. I'm guilty of over tightening them frequently. If I release one end of the blade and it bends/curls off to one side - I know I had it too tight and distorted it - this isn't fixable - chuck the blade away!
Hope this helps.
Sally
Just wondering if anybody uses any sort of guide to help saw in the right direction? I read on a description for a piece that I saw on someones website that they carefully marked their outline with a graver before sawing. I can think of 2 benefits to this 1) having a very clear outline to follow and 2) the metal will be marginally thinner to saw through if you've already shaved a bit out.
Would there be any other benefit to this approach or is it mainly a good visual aid to following your intended line?
Hazel
I Think the benefit would be so slight, that you would not notice, if you want a permanent mark I would just use a scriber, although a sharpie is is my opinion
all you need
I use this stuff to mark things out. Just paint it on (in a well ventilated area as it's a bit whiffy) then once dry (solvent based so 30 secs to a minute as long as it's not on too thick) you can use a scriber to gently draw your pattern on top of the marking fluid. If you make a mistake just re-paint over the affected area and draw again.
Possibly a little overkill for jewellery making but I find it very useful when marking out things in sheet metals. On the plus side a bottle would last you a lifetime for small objects (I get carried away and paint the entire surface because I like the colour - even though it gets wiped off after!).
Bookmarks