My guess: It's simply better. High rigidity and low weight will make it more precise and easier to work with. And written off over a few decades it's not really a big investment.

My coping saw can swivel 360 degrees but the saw shown here has a limit of only 45degrees.

**LINK**

They had to work very hard to get that patent and it's so specific to the construction that it's probably not worth the paper it's written on.

Personally wouldn't  waste £239 on that, you could get quite a few good bottles of wine instead

£100 ish would get you an acceptable? scroll saw, with plenty of cash in hand for wine 

If you go down the milling route, don't forget spelch blocks at the ends

Pete

Edited By Pete White on 02/08/2023 07:24:17

Edited By Pete White on 02/08/2023 07:31:37

They type of blade they hold probably makes the biggest difference as they are more like a piercing saw blade and not as high or thick as say a typical Eclipse pegged end blade. This makes it a lot easier to enter the vertical cut and then turn the blade to cut out the waste.

Rigid frame does help if you get a blade going tight on the return stroke as well as being able to wind in a lot of blade tension

KNEW also have a flat frame design that's not 3D titanium, and at a much more reasonable price. I have one and it works perfectly. Why I'd want a fancy 3D titanium one is beyond me.

It strikes me, that for some people, it's worthless unless their peer group know what they paid for it.

The patent is almost certainly an American "Design Patent" which is basically a more formalised version of copyright protecting certain aesthetic features of a product that the makers consider vital to its appeal.

Pure fluff in engineering terms.

It's tempting to wonder if the elaborate design actually makes any useful improvement in stiffness. A proper engineering analysis would be interesting.

From an engineering perspective titanium is dubious choice of material for something whose purported benefits lie in shape, partial triangulation and wide section, rather than exploitation of material properties. Titanium is a sexy material but it is heavy and difficult to exploit.

Out in the real world good enough is good enough. I suspect any improvements over a well made version of the common design are so far down the marginal end of the spectrum that no one would ever honestly notice. It's awfully easy to convince yourself that the new improved uber expensive version is actually better when seeking justification for the expenditure. Frankly, once good enough performance has been achieved, balance and handling feel count far more when seeking precision operation of such hand held tools than marginal improvements in whatever parameter the sales folk choose to puff up.

Clive

A friend of mine has one of these, although I think it might be the flat rather than 3D version. However, he is rather a fine clockmaker and uses it for crossing out clock wheels rather than wood, which is perhaps a little more demanding. His comment is that it is a bit of a luxury, but it is very nice to use and does allow rather more blade tension than a more conventional frame.

On the whole, I subscribe to the argument that paying a bit too much for a tool that you will use a lot is better than paying too little – although there must be a limit to "too much"!

The two toolmakers clamps are holding spelch boards to stop breakout, no cut on left hand end and as I have not prestaggered the boards the right side will get cut to final height after milling.

G Clamps also have packing to stop them marking the work

If I do handcut then I use a japanese saw to do the vertical cuts and a standard coping saw to remove most of the waste before finishing with a chisel, when you do it to earn money sawing out most of the waste is quicker. Other options for removing the waste are to clamp say some 2 x 4 to the top of the vertically held board and use a router to cut almost to your line, the 2×4 saves the router wobbling.

Most of the time for dovetails I'll use the leigh Jig, good for repetitive work like 20 draw boxes at a time.

For finger joints it's quite easy to knock up a simple jig if you have a router table, a similar jig can also be used on a table saw with a flat top (zero bevel) blade and suitable guarding

I apologise to Jason for my comments on breakout. I should have known better, given his expertise in woodworking. Now that it's been pointed out, I can see the boards referred to. All I saw initially were two wide grooves. And I learnt a new word – "spelch". Even the spellchecker hasn't heard of that one!

John

They do make spiral piercing saw blades (advertised on Amazon for example). These cut in any direction so why need a rotating blade? Just asking.

Those Knew Concept saws polarise opinions. Some people I respect swear by them, others (who I respect at least as much) see no benefit and prefer tools with character.

I suspect they don't make anyone significantly better. If people like them then fine. My favorite is either the cheapest deep throat eclipse (big knew is getting heavy), the medium one I made – neither are 'stiff'.

I quite fancy a Seth Gould http://www.sethgould.com/standard/jewelers-saw but my small one I got for £10 delivered off ebay (probably 150 years old) is pretty nice.

Edited By jaCK Hobson on 02/08/2023 13:42:38