Use your scrollsaw to celebrate the season
Designer: Rick Longabaugh
Scrollsawer: Rick Hutcheson
Capture the spirit of Christmas with these five fun-to-make scrollsawn ornaments. They include two Nativity scenes, ball and ribbon, tree and elf, and village and Santa sleigh. Scrollsaw artist Rick Hutcheson used 1/8" Baltic birch plywood and 1/8"- to 3/16"-thick walnut, cherry, maple, and oak for the designs shown here. He also used a #2/0R (reverse-tooth) 28 TPI (teeth-per-inch) blade by Olson for splinter-free cutting on top and bottom surfaces, and drilled the blade start holes with #67 mini drill bits and a precision pin chuck mounted in his drill press. (Items are available at sloanwoodshop.com or by calling [888] 615-9663.)
Let’s scrollsaw an ornament
1 Print one (or more) of the ornament patterns from onlineEXTRAS (below) and spray-adhere it to your thin stock or plywood. We chose the village and Santa sleigh to demonstrate Rick’s cutting approach. Now, using a fine bit, drill the blade start holes as shown in Photo A.
2 Scrollsaw out the small interior areas first, using the fine-tooth blade as shown in Photo B and as mentioned in the introduction.
3 Cut out the larger detailed interior pieces, and finish by cutting out the exterior pattern lines, freeing the finished ornament from the blank as shown in Photo C.
4 Peel the paper from the ornament, sand lightly with 220 grit, and glue the onlay part where shown on the pattern. Finish with spray laquer.
