Scroll Saw Village

Who doesn’t like puzzles and brain teasers? Bruce from Homemade Puzzles certainly does. He has accumulated 19 Japanese style puzzle boxes of his own design. He offers them all for free on his website. And what a website, too! Very easy to navigate with plenty of pictures, animations and descriptions so you can quickly find the plans you want. He provides PDFs with clear and detailed instructions on how to build these wonderful puzzle boxes. Each of these puzzles can be made with the scroll saw and simple woodworking tools. Give them a try. They’d make the perfect gift for someone who “has everything.”

I try not to post entries about the same website so close to each other, but this pattern from Steve Good is so wonderful, I couldn’t pass it up. As stated in my last post, my favorite websites for patterns is Scrollsaw Workshop. He usually doesn’t do portraits. In fact, this is the first one I’ve seen. Although Red Skelton is before my time, I really enjoy images of entertainers back in the day. Anyway, Steve’s blog entry gives a little history of Red Skelton along with his pattern. I printed this one immediately. This portrait will be the next one to create some saw dust in my shop! Check out the pattern and give it a go. Thanks for the great work Steve!

I’m a visual learner. It’s much easier for me to grasp a concept if I can see it demonstrated. And when I first started scrolling, I was looking for videos on how to use the scroll saw. That’s when I came across Steve Good’s Scrollsaw Workshop. He had several scroll saw videos on YouTube which lead me to his blog. When I went to his website, I discovered a gold mine of free scroll saw patterns! Steve’s ability to crank out patterns is quite remarkable. He posts almost every day with a new pattern to share with his readers. Instead of the typical fretwork portraits you see available elsewhere on the Internet, he provides patterns for decorative objects. Items such as desk plaques, goblets, candle holders, and clocks.

Looking for a simple puzzle for the little one in the family? FreeWoodPuzzles.com is a great source for puzzles for young children. You won’t find intricate puzzles like those of Tony Burns or Judy Peterson. But they do offer kids a lot of fun with their very own personal jigsaw puzzle. Best of all, they cut quickly. You should be able to knock out a bunch of puzzles in an afternoon for your next craft fair.

When I first started scrolling, I knew right away that I needed to find better blades. I was using the Craftsman blades from Sears and my results were awful. Up to this point, I was lurking in the forums and heard of a few different manufacturers of quality blades. The one that caught my eye was a German company called Flying Dutchman. It seemed that people who use these blades usually buy from Mike Moorlach of Mike’s Workshop. Being new at this, I emailed Mike and asked for some advice on the type of blades a newbie should start with. He replied almost immediately and gave me some great advice on choosing blades.

He sells an assortment pack of 5 dozen of his most popular Flying Dutchman blades so you can try several different styles. That’s what I chose to do. And, while talking to Mike, I showed interest in the puzzle and spiral blades. Much to my surprise, he threw in a couple of samples of those blades, too! How cool is that? And best of all was the speed of delivery. I bought my blades on Friday, and by Monday afternoon, I had my scroll saw blades waiting for me in my mail box! You just don’t see that kind of service anymore.

You can find more information about Flying Dutchman scroll saw blades on his website; http://mikesworkshop.com/blades.htm. Mike is so confident that people will really enjoy using the Flying Dutchman blades, he’ll give you a sample of 2 blades of your choice for free! Try before you buy! You can’t beat that! Just shoot him an email and request a sample!

One of my favorite blogs about scroll sawing is done by a gentleman from Tulip Tree Crafts. He posts regularly about the behind the scenes operations of his scrolling business in his blog Scroll Saw Blog. Its a lot of fun to read.
One of his items that he sells is a Dragon Fly. It can be made into a magnet or an ornament for a pot. It really turned out neat and it sounds like it’s doing well at the fairs. He made the pattern available to anybody who wants it. You can read about the Dragon Fly here. He also posted a PDF of the pattern along with instructions on how to put it together here. I recommend you take a look. It might be a great addition to your inventory. Or just a project for that rainy/snowy day.