Got to figure out a suitable belt holster for the thing though...
Check the local laws first, conceded carry is frowned upon in most
places And no airplanes nor federal buildings allowed. I almost
lost my swiss army knife attempting to enter a federal building.
Goon at the door had full airport type scanners and no sense of
humour. Bad enough explaining a pocket knife, a saw frame and it
would of been leg irons
+100 internets to you for the use (and proper spelling) of
bandoleer. I agree that this is a very practical fashion item that is
routinely overlooked. As far as Iām concerned, your coolness factor
is already established!
I have a handful of Fretz hammers on their way to me. The gauntlet
has been thrown so I must create a wearable method of display. Since
bandoleers and holsters are already spoken for, Iām thinking pants.
Specifically a haute couture take on the painterās paints with the
hammer loop. Just imagine if you had six hammers attached to your
pants, all within reach when working, and allowing you to hammer at
will when out on the town.
How many more people do we need before Arlo Guthrie would consider
this a movement!?!
+100 internets to you for the use (and proper spelling) of
bandoleer. I agree that this is a very practical fashion item that is
routinely overlooked. As far as Iām concerned, your coolness factor
is already established!
I have a handful of Fretz hammers on their way to me. The gauntlet
has been thrown so I must create a wearable method of display. Since
bandoleers and holsters are already spoken for, Iām thinking pants.
Specifically a haute couture take on the painterās paints with the
hammer loop. Just imagine if you had six hammers attached to your
pants, all within reach when working, and allowing you to hammer at
will when out on the town.
How many more people do we need before Arlo Guthrie would consider
this a movement!?!
I donāt have any ideas of my own, but I do have a variety of
capabilities outside of jewelry.
Iād love to team up with someone for such a competition and lend my
skills as a software and electronic circuit designer, who can also
do a little bit of light machining. It would build up my confidence a
great deal and maybe I can even form a living around it.
I was thinking that I need to prominently display my Knew Saw on
the living room wall like those cool bike dudes do with their fancy
schmancy 20 speed bicycles. The red color will definitely contrast
with my walls and furniture, and will get noticed by all!
Or get several, or add several other cool tools, and make a Calder
style mobile incorporating your favorite tools hanging on hooks.
Youād want to engineer it so it hangs just above and behind or next
to you where you work, so you could reach up and grab the needed tool
right off the mobile, or āout of thin airā if you want a more
dramatic mental image. The trick would be figuring out the mobile so
that removal of any one tool wouldnāt totally unbalance the thingā¦
But I fear that if we keep figuring out yet more cool uses for Leeās
saws, he may end up being faced with way more orders than he can
handle. And Iād hate to either be the cause of his being too
overworked for good health, or almost as bad, finding the latest
batch of saws with a discrete stamp on them saying made in Chinaā¦
That would kind of take some of the joy out of it for me, I thinkā¦
Donāt laugh, but Leeās got the "Evolutionary History of the KC Saw"
tacked to the wall of the office.
There are six or eight sawframes of various vintages, illustrating
how the thingās evolved over the past year or two. Iāll post a picture
the next time I take my camera out to the shop.
Not to mention the tremendous increase in your social status and
coolness rating. I'm certain that just owning one of these saws
could likely get you admitted into any of the coolest most
exclusive high class night clubs. I haven't actuallly tried it yet,
mind you, but I'm sure it will work. Got to figure out a suitable
belt holster for the thing though...
I can just see it now, entering a dive in Tucson, during the Gem
Show.
This was your fatherās light saber-saw. For a thousand generations
the Jeweldi used it to guaranteed peace between the precious metals
and gems artists and crafters. An elegant weaponā¦ from a more
civilized ageā¦ And here is the Oro Valley Sheratonā¦ the slimiest,
greasiest den of polishers and fabulusters in the galaxyā¦
Iāve spoken with Lee about this, and speaking as the other guy who
makes the parts for the KC saws, theyāll get offshored over both of
our dead bodies.
Theyāre 100% made in the US, and always will be. The handles come
from a little company on the East coast, and we make most everything
else ourselves. (Screws aside.) At the moment there are two of us
making them. (With the occasional assist from my wife.) Lee does
110% of it, with me doing battle with the big CNC milling center that
makes most of the fiddly bits. If Lee needs to bring on more people
to meet demand, that doesnāt strike either of us as a problem.
Youāll notice that weāve taken the āthree week waiting listā off of
the KC website. Weāre getting to the point where we can make them
fast enough (barely) to keep up. (No, demand has not gone down, weāve
gotten faster.)
Weāve even gotten to the point where we can start thinking about
bringing some of Leeās (k)new things to SNAG this year.
Check the local laws first, conceded carry is frowned upon in most
places :-)
Concealed? That would be totally a defeat of the whole point. Iām
thinking of the old west gunslinger type, six shooter prominently
displayed hanging low on each hip, ready for action. Here, weād have
the instantly available and totally visible saw frame on the one
side, perhaps both, but hammers or files on the other would work too.
And instead of the cowboy hat, it would be an optivisor or similarā¦
And no airplanes nor federal buildings allowed. I almost lost my
swiss army knife attempting to enter a federal building. Goon at
the door had full airport type scanners and no sense of humour.
geez. did you inform the Swiss embassy? Theyāre neutral, ya know.
Their neutrality should have been respected. Iām betting a complaint
to the state department would get your neutral Swiss army knife
returned. Or at least, might get ya in the news. Almost as much fun.
Bad enough explaining a pocket knife, a saw frame and it would of
been leg irons :-)
Hey, leg irons! Didnāt think of those. wonder how we could use them
to display and carry yet more tools. Preferably, they should be some
sort of historically accurate medieval type to increase admiration
from fans of armor or the like. wonder if they ever used fancy
pattern welded steel for leg irons? How about for balls and chain
sets? (yeah I know the originals were āball and chainā. But āballsā
sounds just so much more macho, doesnāt it.) Hmm. Boggles the mind.
Possibilities abound.
Thanks for the bandoleer suggestion! I just ordered a ballistic nylon
shotgun shell bandoleer online, for under $10, which is within my
budget for a novelty item such as this. Once it arrives, I will see
if the Sharpie pens will fit and stay in the bandoleer while I wear
it. (Costco is another great idea for the pens in quantity).
If the Sharpies donāt fit, and our political climate continues to
deteriorate, perhaps using the bandoleer for its original intended
purpose might be smartā¦
I have a handful of Fretz hammers on their way to me. The gauntlet
has been thrown so I must create a wearable method of display.
Since bandoleers and holsters are already spoken for, I'm thinking
pants. Specifically a haute couture take on the painter's paints
with the hammer loop. Just imagine if you had six hammers attached
to your pants, all within reach when working, and allowing you to
hammer at will when out on the town.
āFretz Pantsāā¦ this really could work!
If youāre going to be in Seattle for the SNAG Conference in May, you
simply MUST model your Fretz Pants. Somewhere, there is a pants
manufacturer just waiting to sew lots of loops on their line of
āMetalsmith Coutureā pants. Iām thinking the words āSNAG THISā across
the back of the pants.
Your idea now, but Iām visualizing an ad campaign featuring an aging
Arlo Guthrie modeling your pants in a re-do of the scene in āAliceās
Restaurantā, where heās in jail for littering, sitting on the āGroup
Wā bench. Another prisoner on the bench asks Arlo, āHey, whatās with
all the loops on your pants, dude?ā
Arlo replies, āTheyāre for my Fretz hammers, but they confiscated
them when they booked me.ā
Oh, itās a movement already, Cheree, itās a movement!
(Iām going to start working on some drawings for my āThrowing
Gauntletsā this weekendā¦)
Your ideas for Fretz pants made me hoot with laughter. The ad
campaign is absolute genius (and mega bonus points for including the
group W bench).
Thanks for brightening my day. I look forward to seeing pictures of
both the Sharpie bandoleer (which should play music when you throw it
over your shoulder-the music you would hear in spaghetti westerns)
and the throwing gauntlets.
Iād not planned on being in Seattle in May but I do want to visit
Portland this year and Seattleās not that far away from there. Have
to check travel websitesā¦
my problem is can't cut it straight and no matter how I try the cut
always go other way not the way I want,
I will sound like a heretic but here goes. In trying to follow a
layout line I find it helpful to tilt the sawframe forward, so that
the blade is acting at an angle to the metal, maybe 15 degrees or so.
And rather than an even forward pressure I like to nibble at the
metal, that is take a downward stroke then pull the blade backwards a
tiny bit, half a millimeter or so and then another forward and down
stroke. If you do this with a light steady rhythm it acts something
like the split in a lap, it lets you see what is actually occurring.
You can see blade drift way before it is a problem and can correct
easily. The forward tilt dampens erratic motion allowing a smoother
finished line. It also alters the tooth count Vs stock gauge needed,
not by a lot but often times enough to make the difference. Maybe you
have noticed that when starting a cut at the edge, if you are
perpendicular you might break a few blades on the initial stroke. Try
making the first couple of strokes in reverse direction, more heresy.
That eliminates the sharp edge that causes the breakage, because a
toothed saw is not designed to cut corner edges, its designed to cut
a thickness of metal. One tooth right on the corner will break the
blade usually.
The above is for straight lines or gentle curves. For tight radii
you need to be perpendicular but you can still do the nibble routine.
For angled corners its really tough to go around the corner in one
motion. Better to make two straight cuts into the corner, one form
each ray of the angle.
I still break blades but my work is more precise. I will now
surrender myself for the pillory.
I find it helpful to tilt the sawframe forward, so that the blade
is acting at an angle to the metal, maybe 15 degrees or so.
Great advice from Neil. There may be another thing to think about
when you find yourself āwanderingā around the plate. Its simple; I
find my students consistently keep their thumb up along the inside
of the saw frame. This tends to throw the saw off balance and tilts
it to the right (if you saw with your right hand). This of course
makes it want to saw off course. Instead, put your thumb loosely down
over your index finger. This will help keep it sawing straight and
true.
Reading some of these comments and watching a few YouTube videos of
USA tutors showing piercing, I see students being taught to pierce
holding the saw frame straight to the eye line and piercing away
from their face along the bench pin. To be blunt they are looking at
the back of the saw blade or trying to look over the saw frame to see
where they are piercing when following a line. There are a few
videos of coin piercers who to my mind pierce correctly, that is to
pierce with the saw frame at an angle to your eyeline and pierce
across the bench pin at angles between 45 degrees and 90 degrees, if
right handed, piercing from right to left. This way they can see
where the blade is cutting and can also see the piercing line
clearly. I know there are no hard and fast rules to piercing and it
is helpful to be able to pierce in all directions for different jobs.
Some jobs that I have pierced, meant that I hold the saw frame, and
also the item that I am piercing, in every angle possible.
Finally if anyone is interested, Lee Marshall is introducing upgrades
to his aluminium Knew Concept saw frames, they will soon be available
with the quick blade release lever, as fitted to his top of the range
titanium models. he will also have upgrade kits available for
customers who wish to upgrade their older frames.
Just to clarify what James said about lever upgrades to the Knew
Concepts saws, there will be a lever upgrade kit available for the
new style frames that have the hole for the leverās axle. These have
been available for about the last month or so, and are distinguished
by having a sort of keel under the upper blade clamp, and no return
spring. (Most of them have shipped since the first of the year.)
There is no way to add a lever to the older style of aluminum
sawframe with the return spring. The frame doesnāt have enough room
for the axle. (We spent a solid day beating both of our heads against
that one, but there just isnāt enough room. Sorry.)
The revised frame design is the result of some engineering studies
we did, as well as requests and comments Lee received over the past
year, and includes many of the refinements first introduced with the
titanium framed saws.
We tried desperately to keep the upgrades backwards compatible with
the older frames, but finally it came down to a choice between
backwards compatibility and serious improvements moving forward.
The good news is that the frame design seems pretty stable for the
future.
Regards,
Brian Meek.
(Leeās semi-invisible minion)
And no airplanes nor federal buildings allowed. I almost