An Odd Little Coping Saw from the Museum

Hey friends, I am so busy lately and I apologize for the lack of posts. The Steppingstone Museum has been keeping me busy, but so has my day job in Internet Marketing. This recession is a beast and I have to work all that much harder to find and qualify new customers so I have been putting in a few extra hours lately.

Anyway, I have been slowing getting my feet under me at the museum and getting acquainted with all the tools as well as doing some restoration and tuning to get everything into working order. I came across this odd little coping saw hanging high on the wall above our treadle lathe and took it down to put it through it’s paces. The saw has a chain mechanism attached to an axle at the top that allows you to steer the blade without fear of breaking it because you introduce too much twist. With the axle at the top, both sides of the blade turn in unison really smoothly. Now with this flexibility comes a disadvantage because the frame of the saw turns freely about the handle and you cannot lock it in place.

This freedom of movement means that you really need both hands to cut with the saw. In use though it turns on a dime and with it’s larger through capacity and blade length (about 12×8) you can really use it much like a smaller frame saw. I like to call this saw a Steampunk Coping saw! But a little research tells me it is a Charles Fenner patent Coping saw.

Stay tuned for more oddities from the Steppingstone Museum tool vault!