Piercing Saw Tips

This week in our weekly classes we looked more closely at The Piercing Saw. It's one of those tools that people use in almost every project but are a bit worried about using it and feel they don't use it efficiently. Maggie, one of my Wednesday morning girls, is making a ring with a 1.2mm chunky section of sheet. We usually use 2/0 grade saw blades in our piercing saw, theses are good for general use, but with something as heavy as 1.2mm sheet I advised Maggie to use a heavier grade so we upped the blade to a 1 grade. When using a piercing saw you should choose a blade that has 2.5 teeth within the thickness of metal. Think of it at its extreme and it makes sense. A blade with very small teeth would take a very long time to cut thick metal and a blade with large teeth would catch terribly on thin sheet.

So, here's some pointers from our workshop...

• Make sure you have a tight blade in the frame
• In most cases cut with the blade at a right angle to your metal
• Choose a blade that has 2.5 teeth within your thickness of metal
• 2/0 grade for general use (Size 4 is the coarsest and 8/0 is the finest)
• Let the blade do the work...if you find your pushing too hard into the metal loosen your grip on the handle and hold it lightly
• Whenever changing direction keep the blade moving
• Never have your fingers in the cutting path
• Don't worry if it breaks!!

Hope this helps,

Amy.x