Hi googling silversmith saw Chez Monique Silver Smith Class.
They hold the saw UPSIDE DOWN.
I can see a lot of things wrong with this technique. Such as your
hand obscures a clear view of the blade and metal.
Anyone seen this?
I have heard of the blade being put in upside down Vietnamese
Silversmith I think.
So when doing piercing the swarf (bits of metal from sawing) falls
below the sheet not on top and obscures the line being cut.
Tools are often used differently!
My teacher (master silver and goldsmith) asked me why I did not have
handles on my files? I said my engineer father told me they get in
the way when you want to file backwards, i. e.
pull the file towards you.
It was a new one for him, but he liked the idea. And it often comes
in handy for me.
I taught a 2 week rolling mill class at a university in Guilin,
China back in 2005, and I noticed all the Chinese students held their
saws handle up.
They were astonished when I demonstrated my sawing technique handle
down.
Well, I guess it’s how you are shown, or what you get used to.
I explained to my students that because they are on the opposite
side of the world than us Americans, we are all holding our saws in
the same relative positions!
I saw that way, the blade is in the same orientation, cutting on the
down stroke. I find I have more control my saw never hits the pan
and no lemel covers my hand. It takes a little getting used to, try
it.
I once saw an article on this - in print, I think - the saw was
being used to cut away the backgrounds of coins to make pendants and
such - I thought this was weird enough to be a once-only application
Regarding pulling files. I believe Richard meant that you face the
tang away from you and then pull the file toward you. The teeth are
still facing into the cut, but you’re cutting on the pull rather than
on the push.
I can see some applications where it would be better to handle a
file this way. Not so much for jewelry, but when working on machines
where you didn’t have good clearance.
Here is perhaps one of the original posts on this thread.
My friend Ho left Viet Nam in the early 70’s. He is truly a master
jeweler for what he did with what he had.
The currency there at the time was worth nothing. His customer would
come to him with a picture and a specific amount of gold.
His job was to make the piece of jewelry to the customers
satisfaction. The negotiation was how much the piece would weigh
after it was done.
His pay was the difference of the original weight vs. the finished
piece weight. Every speck of gold was very important.
He showed me that sawing upside down allowed him to collect every
speck of material form sawing and fabricating the piece. If you look
at your hand with the regular position of the saw, your hand if full
of material from sawing with the downward stroke.
A small leather apron was positioned beneath the bench pin to
collect his pay.
He even made his own solder in various temperatures from scratch.
Indeed a very skilled jeweler.
Asian gold jewelry is typically 22k or 24 karat because they needed
to travel with disposable income and pure gold in any shape was worth
more in any country.
yes I face the tang away from me and pull the file towards me.
I find this useful to put an chamfered edge on a strip of
reticulated silver I will make into a ring.
I start by filing in the usual way, I start at the right hand end of
the strip. But when I get to the left hand end my fingers are in the
way so I turn the strip around and turn the tang away from me and pull
the file towards me. Works a treat.
Here’s a little joke played on me a few years ago.
I was doing a sawing demonstration. The saw would just not saw
straight. No matter what I did. I think I worked on it for several
minutes.
I concluded that a friend of mine had placed the saw blade in the
frame and turned it a quarter turn, tightened it and left it for me
to use. The blade was tightened sideways at the top and regular at
the bottom.
I don’t think he was watching my demo, he heard about it from the
class. He would have been laughing too hard and shown his guilt.