Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2002 00:02:53 EDT
Subject: Re: PUPT: Musical saws


Greetings All,

My Dad tried to instruct me MANY years ago in the playing of a hand saw. We 
didn't get as far as using a bow.  One needed to have a good sense of tone to 
play a saw properly. My father recognized early on that, in my case, the bow 
wouldn't have helped.

The saw was a common hand saw of steel, perhaps 30" inches in length with a 
wooden handle. 

The saw was held by the handle placed between the thighs, as one sat, so that 
ONLY the wooden handle touched the thigh area. (If any of the blade touched, 
the sound was damped.) The blade was held flat, with the length on a more or 
less horizontal plane.
The end of the saw blade was held by the thumb on top and several fingers 
under so that the blade could be "flexed" up or down to produce different 
tones. Apparently the amount of flex determined the tone. 

We used a mallet of rubber or some such which produced a tone similar to a 
"Hawaiian" or electric bench guitar. "Vibrato," if I use the term properly, 
was achieved by vibrating the fingers holding the tip of the blade slightly 
as one flexed the blade.

IF I had to find a saw to play, I'd avoid anything new and go to a used tool 
outlet or tag sale. One could almost guarantee that the steel used in an 
earlier saw would be of a better quality and produce a clearer tone.

Hope this helps.

Fred Thompson


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