Newbee starting with making book marks

[HockeymanVT]

Well, I have my new Dremmel saw and a few types of blades and am beginning to try to cut a fairly delicate snowflake pattern in some 1/16" ash to turn into bookmarks. It is hard to do successfully for lots of reasons but I will ask here about the species of wood. Ash is straight grained but brittle the slightest mistake with the blade and many pieces of the design fall away. Since I cut my own woods, I have lots of choice for material - sugar maple, red maple, ash, beech, birch (yellow and white) hop hornbeam, bass wood, alder, cherry.
So should I be concentrating on finer grained wood or just get MUCH more skilled?

FWIW
I just ordered .5 gross of 2/0 spirals from Mikes.

Thx,

[Mick Walker]

HockeymanVT, sounds like you are cutting just one piece of 1/16" wood. Have you tried stacking 5 or 6 pieces and cutting all of them at once? I very seldom use a spiral blade, seems like a flat blade with many t.p.i. would be best for cutting thin pieces of ash. Cutting thin pieces I would make a sandwich of several thin pieces between 2 pieces of 1/8" plywood. You can fasten the sandwich together with brads in the waste area or tape.

[lucky788scroller]

The ash should be fine, and my first thoughts were exactly the same as Micks. Cut a stack of many of them, and sandwiching them is a great idea as well, and I wouldnt even try using a sprial on something that thin, they just dont do fine enough work.I would call Mike and have him split up that 1/2 gross and send you some #2/0 FD- SR blades. Good luck with them. Dale

[Tor]

I cut 1/42" veneers all the time, in stacks of two, 3 when cutting large thin pieces in something extremely brittle like ebony (third is for under piece support). I would suggest trying some 2/0 regular tooth blades, and use any stack size, perhaps trying some skip tooth for thick stacks (probably greater than 4). I use 8/0 jewelers blades, but you shouldn't need to go that fine. I do bevel work where the kerf makes a big difference.

You will also need to shrink the hole around the blade quite a bit, either by making a new insert, or cutting to the middle of a business card or piece of the clear plastic sheet you commonly find wrapping small electronic goods, and taping that around the blade. Optimum method will depend on your saw.

Good luck,

Tor

[chris39]

Ash is a nice hardwood, but when cutting as thin as 1/16" it can get a little brittle because it has large pores. The stack cutting is definitely a way around this.

Chris

[cseymour]

HockeymanVT,
How do you like the Dremmel saw? I was looking at one and would be curious as to how you like it.

Thanks.

Chris

[sawdustus]

I have cut a lot of bookmarks, some are my own design. I use 1/32" birch ply and stack cut 8 or 12 at a time depending on my mood. I usually use a # 2 or #5 reverse tooth blade to reduce fuzzies. Hope this helps.
George