Coiling Band Saw Blades
© Frank Ford, 2005; Photos by FF
Once you get the hang of this little trick, you'll find it easy to coil up even those stiff ol' 3/4" wide blades. Here's how I learned to do it from an old timer back in the early 1960s:
First, take hold of the blade in both hands, gripping it at 8 o'clock and 4 o'clock positions, making sure that your thumbs are oriented along the back edge of the blade:
Then hook the blade at the 12 o'clock position under any convenient object, such as a door knob, table edge, or this bench vise:
Walk forward a bit and fold the blade upward in the middle as you go:
If it's going well, you'll notice that your thumbs are now pointing just about straight up.
Keep on bending the blade over, and watch your thumbs, arcing your hands so that your thumbs begin to point at one another:
At about this point, the blade will start to curl under itself:
In this photo, you can see my thumbs pointing together as the blade springs into a nice tight coil:
Simple as that, a nice triple coiled blade:
Once more, with animation:
Back to Index Page