Spiral Blades

[Sawduster]

I have finally discovered the quality of FD blades ( Thanx Mike ! ) While ordering, I had a " momentary lapse of reason " and ordered some spirals , having heard countless tales of their effectiveness in portrait cutting. Additionally I have heard tales of the challenges in their use
Can anyone give me some tips and/or excercises to use before I go screwing up a bunch of newly-bought purdy wood ?
Any spiral-blades-for-dummies type of advice greatly appreciated

[RAIN MAN]

Ive Use Spirals For Many A Year Now And I Know You Will Enjoy Them Once You Get Use To Them. A Lot Of Folks Dont Like Them Though. I Would Say To Get Scrap And Just Pratice The Cut Without Turning The Wood. You Already Know How To Scroll. I Cut Slabs Using Spirals, A Rougher Cut But People Never Seem To Notice. Scrollers Do !!! LOL Let Me Know What You Think Of Them. Tks, Rain Man

[Greenfield_Bob]

I have never gotten the hang of spirals, I could do better with a pocket knife.
Flat blades work fine for me.

Bob

[Minnesota scroller]

I picked up a few FD spirals about a month ago and slowing things way down and with a little practice I could follow lines relatively well, except straight lines. I didn't practice enough for that. I don't care for them. They tend to shred the pattern and make it tougher to follow and I prefer smoother cuts. Also, these FD spirals seemd to snap much easier than any other blade I've used. This would happen while tensioning the blade, not while cutting. I thought I had the tension all figured out for these blades and then, snap. The next one, even though tensioned exactly the same, would snap before I reached the same tension. That is very frustrating. I'll still keep a few on hand and use for maybe 3 or 4 cuts per portrait - only for veining. Surprisingly, some people love them. They say it takes all kinds, right Bill?

[B Smith]

Cutting my first pattern of Jeffs is when I started to use the spirals . They took a while to get used to but now no problem.The first pattern I cut with them was Jeffs Family time. I bought some of Mikes spiral reverse but won`t do tht again as it puts fuzzies on the front of the wood where you can`t burn them off. Just don`t sneeze or hickup or you wiill have designer firewood.. I have used them on some of my other patterns as well.

[Jediscroller]

The best advise I can give ya is to scroll the alphabet with them. By the time you get to the letter Z you'll have the hang of them. Mike, your experience with the FD spirals reminds me of mine with the Pegas blades, I've snapped every one I've tried to use. Wonder if there's a bad steel run floating about in Europe?
I use flats for everything unless it exceeds the throat of my saw, including portraits. I just don't like the look of the cuts of spirals.

[lucky788scroller]

Originally Posted by Sawduster

Can anyone give me some tips and/or excercises to use before I go screwing up a bunch of newly-bought purdy wood ?

Practice on something other then purdy wood first!!!!! Dale

[ozarkhillbilly]

Robert, spirals are all I use, and since your used to using flat blades they will take a little bit of getting used to.
First like Dale said, try using something besides purdy wood, till you get the hang of them! You will find you will have better control of them when you stack cut also. There is a difference between some spirals also, I feel that the FD New Spirals aren't as aggressive as the regular spiral blades. Therefore giving you a much smoother and controlled cut.
Jedi offered up a good suggestion and that is try doing the alphabet with them. Or throw on a easy pattern and just go for it! Just keep this in mind, don’t try to turn the wood around the blade, use the entire 360 degree cutting surface that a spiral offers, tracing the line in whichever direction it goes, you don't have to spin the wood to feed the blade into the line your following. Below is a close up of a project I am working on now, I never turned the wood once to make my cuts, I just fed my wood into the blade rather it was from the side, front or back.
I've also found that when making long straight cuts with a spiral, I have better control by starting at the bottom of the cut so to speak and pulling the wood towards me using the back of the spiral blade, instead of pushing the piece into the blade and away from me.

I guess it just boils down to practice, and don't give up!

[Sawduster]

Excellent advice everyone.........thanx This forum rocks !

Bill,
I actually purchased the easy spirals as well as the regular ones and plan on trying the easy ones first. My goal is a portrait from a pattern I made and I want to stack cut four 1/8 pieces . Is that too many or not enough ?

[Jediscroller]

Robert,
I typically stack 5 pieces of 1/8" wood. I use #3 FD-SR's though so I'm not sure how those compare to spirals.