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"Blitz " type fret-slotting saws


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Anyone remember the " Blitz" saws that LMI and Stew-Mac used to sell ?

pic of one here :

http://www.holzwerken.de/museum/saw/einstrichsaege1.phtml

I've wanted one for a while now, because they had various blade thicknesses that were held to the saw frame by screws. I want a saw like this, but haven't seen them for sale in the USA for quite a while. Now , I'm currently in Germany and I'm looking for one (AT A GOOD PRICE). So far, the Rockinger guitar parts place here in Germany has these Blitz saws , but they want about 20 Euro for one, plus I'd have to pay shipping , since Hannover is too far for a reasonable drive from where I'm at.

So, my questions are :

What were these saws selling for in the US (if anyone's got an old StewMac catalog that has them listed) ?

Anyone know of a place that has them for under 20 Euro in Europe, or a good price in the US ?

Anyone come across another saw like this, maybe from another company, country ? (the Blitz ones were/are made in Germany as far as I have known)

Thanks,

Rob

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I just bought the set of Gauged Saws from Stew Mac, not sure if they would work for what your trying to do though. The best thing about them is that you can just grab whichever size you need, no need to switch anything over. But I really don't know of a place to buy the ones your looking for anymore. I even bought another .020" saw and modified it so it's the exact same as the Refret Saw which can save you nearly 10 dollars alone.

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Yep, I've already been thinking that I might have to end up buying the StewMac .020" inch saw and modding the blade to make a copy of their re-fret saw (that's exactly what they did-- the regular .020" is around 8 bucks ?, but then the refret saw is around 14 bucks) If you mod the $8 one yourself, you got extra blade left over to replace the little blade several times by cutting pieces off. I'm assuming the blades on those are as easy to take off as on the .022" big fret-slotting saw I bought from SteMac way back. All I had to do was clamp the saw blade in a vise, heat the saw frame with a torch, then the saw frame wiggled right off the blade, I then cut the blade shorter, because it doesn't need to be so long, then I put the blade back into the frame slot the other way around, so then the saw cuts on the pull stroke.

I should have bought one of those blitz saws years ago. I always make the mistake of assuming stuff will be around whenever I decide I finally want one. But, it seems like the more clever variations of tools end up going away.

Now, if I can just get my wife to take me to a German flea market, maybe I can find a blitz saw. I could go by myself, but it could be a mess trying to price haggle.

(she speaks German, but I only know a few German words: salz=salt, Du=you, mit=with, hosen=pants)

Rob

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It depends on what you're doing. If you are cutting your own fret-slots from scratch, you'd want a gauge that works with the wire, but for re-fret work, where there's already a fret-slot there, it seems to work well (if not better) to use a saw blade that's a hair or two thinner than the fret-slot. The thinner blade will be guided by the slot already there and that will make the thinner blade go a little from side to side, which should make you end up with a .020"-.024" slot bottom with a blade that's only .019"- .020"

I'm also curious if those ones stew-mac sells can be had elsewhere cheaper. Stew mac stamps their name on those saws in pictures I've seen. When they do that, they charge for it.

I already checked Harbor Freight, and didn't find any suitable small "back saws" like these.

At this point I'd be happy finding a place that sells .019"-.020" replacement blades for these size saws.

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