I earlier mentioned using a piece of narrow bandsaw blade to make one of
these and Frank tosses out some other suggestions:

> If you took a regular old 1/4 inch blade, and "bent it permanently" at
> 90 degrees, you would have it, at least a practice one <> a
> coping saw blade might work as well <>

I was getting all excited to about the idea on that "fullchisel" blog
that Mike linked to that you could use ONE saw for BOTH cuts -- but then
I calmed down and thought a little harder about it.

The thing about using a little backsaw to cut dovetails is that the cut
stays straight because the blade is wide -- obviously, it's wider than
the cut is deep. That's why these saws typically have very little set,
too -- so they cut straight. But cutting a straight line with a coping
saw or even a 1/4 wide blade on, say, a 3/4 inch deep cut is dicier.

In fact, Klauz uses a bow saw with a blade that looks an inch and a half
wide or so to make his rip cuts. Then he switches saws for the
crosscuts. It's still cool in that he can remove most of the waste, to
the line, in one quick crosscut.

But one saw to do both? I don't know how effective it would be. Unless
you had the vertical part of the blade very wide, the twist very
narrow and then the crosscut part a little wider than that. Ah, that's
getting too complicated for me. OK, my excitement has worn off a
little. Maybe I'll just go back to my old, comfortable (and slower)
way of cutting these.

-- Bob in Eugene
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