Bow saw
Also called: frame saw, turning saw
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A bow saw is a saw with a narrow blade stretched tight in a wooden frame, light enough to follow a curve and quick enough to clear away waste wood before it is pared or chiselled to a finished line.
Other names
Hasluck (1907) writes: "the bow saw, known also as the turning saw or frame saw."
Cutting curves and clearing waste
A turning saw suits many kinds of small curved cutting work. Pieces can be cut out close to a marked line using a bow saw, and for heavier cutting work, either a keyhole saw, a narrow-bladed saw used for cutting openings from a drilled starting hole, or a bow saw is used. A bow saw can also cut away a waste core, the bulk of unwanted wood inside a marked shape, after which chisels square up the shoulders and back left by the cut.
In one craftsman's bench work
One craftsman described by Landis (1987) used a narrow-bladed frame saw to clear out waste before the bottoms of sockets, the recesses cut to house another part, were pared flat with a chisel. The same craftsman sometimes sawed along a scribed line with a frame saw before hewing the edge by hand, and used a wide-bladed frame saw to hand-saw half-blind dovetail pins, the sloped projections of a dovetail joint that stop short of showing through the other piece.
Ripping and 90-90 cutting
Ripping, sawing along the length of a board in the same direction as its grain, whether done with a band saw or a frame saw, is treated as one particular case within a broader classification called 90-90 cutting.