I noticed a couple days ago that the infamous conversation arose again, about what is the best coping saw blade for coping out the waste in your dovetails. I have not tried the new blades that Chris Schwarz was talking about; I think he was still trying to find the blades in the USA.
However, I have found a good alternative, one that I have been using for quite some time now and have had very good results.
I have found the best blades to come from of all places, are you ready? No guys, it’s not Harbor Freight, but SEARS! Go down to your local Sears and pick up a pack of FINE coping saw blades. And as an added bonus they are made right here in the USA, which is a hard thing to find these days.
Now, the reason I think these are the best is that they are quite thin from the back of the blade to the teeth. This makes it very easy to turn in the cut. The blades that some of the other manufactures sell are too wide from the teeth to the back of the blade. This makes it harder to get the saw to turn in the cut.
I set the blade to cut on the push stroke and use a very light hold on the saw. You can watch a video on how I execute this technique both below and right here.
We have the free video above and if you want you can pay some money to get the better, more in-depth video right here.
Now just for the record, I don’t buy all my woodworking hand tools from Sears but the blades are great! However, I think they have a few more hand tools that may at least get you started.
So for a couple bucks go pick up a pack of blades and get back to the shop and start coping out the waste.
The blades Schwarz was talking about come standard on the Knew Concepts coping saw. I had one at the recent Traveling Tool Box class. Mark looked at them pretty close. The are just a tad thinner than the craftsman, but not made in America and thusly three times more expensive. I can’t tell the difference in output or quality of cut. So “as usual” follow Frank’s no nonsense advice – buy Craftsman.
I saw Frank’s comment post on one of Chris’s post about coping saw blades and picked up some of the craftsman version. They work great and are very thin! Even better than the ones I got from tools for working wood. Don’t hesitate to give them a try. Thanks for the great tip Frank.