Thanks Ian for posting your excellent description of the two legged
parsers used to cut out unusual shapes in metal. This is the kind of
commonsense technical solution that makes learning about
metalworking interesting.
Hello David,
I too enjoyed Ian’s post, especially since in introduced me to a
concept I had never seen before, or at least don’t remember seeing.

However I’m not at all clear as to how this tool is going to cut
patterns in metal. Ian mentions the scales that are used in knife
handles and I can certainly see how it would work there because that
material is usually wood, bone or horn. In other words we have the
hardened points of the parser cutting away the much softer materials
as those points are rotated in the pattern.
How this would work on metals, silver for instance, is a bit of a
puzzle to me. I would thing that at the very least the points would
need some fairly carefully finishing in terms of cutting angles and
edges but once I start thinking about that I get the strong feeling
that I’m barking up the wrong tree. My guess is that they’re NOT
intended for cutting metal at all.
So Ian, if we may impose upon you for more info, what say you? Is
this a tool for cutting shapes in all types of materials, including
metals, or is it pretty much limited to the softer, non-metallic
materials mentioned above?
Cheers,
Trevor F.
in The City of Light
www.touchmetal.com