Coping saw

Also called: fret saw, bead saw

A coping saw is a hand tool for cutting tight curves and removing unwanted wood from a piece of timber.

The saw and its work

It has a narrow blade stretched in an open U-shaped frame, allowing the blade to turn inside a piece of wood. Use it for curved lines in moulding, a shaped strip used in joinery, and for narrow scrollwork, decorative patterns made from curves. It is also suited to shelf brackets, wood toys and similar small shaped parts.

Curves and corners

A coping saw is useful when the cut must follow a marked curve rather than a straight edge. Gentle curves can be cut with a handsaw, while sharper curves suit the coping saw. When fitting the end of a moulding at a corner, a mitre, meaning an angled end cut, can be sawn back to its marked line and then trimmed smooth.

Removing joinery waste

In joinery, use the coping saw to remove waste, the unwanted wood left inside a cut, after a larger saw has made the straight cuts. For example, once the vertical edges of two tenons, the projecting parts of a joint, have been cut with a tenon or panel saw, the coping saw can remove the wood between them. It can also cut through a board to clear waste from a shaped joint.