spiral blades

[sawman]

I have been reading about scrolling portraits and it seems that most people use spiral blades.Is there some reason for this?

[newfie]

yes there is,for me anyway.usually portraits are rather large and the spirals makes it a lot easier to cut them where they cut in all directions you can hold the piece in one position and keep cutting rather then spinning the piece on the saw table so much.

[GrayBeard]

Spirals are the ONLY way for me to cut portraits!

Lots of TENSION, fast blade speed and don't 'feed' the wood, just GUIDE it SLOWLY.
They are not easy to deal with and you MUST have at least 3/8" STACK to be able to control them. Trying to do a single 1/8" or 1/4" with spirals is to invite major disaster.

~~~GB~~~

[julief]

Spirals take practice.  Remember, you have 360 degrees of cutting on a spiral.  GB is dead on when he says you need at least 3/8" thickness.  The fragile pieces will break on anything thinner.  Once you get used to them, there's no going back.  They also enable you to cut a much larger piece.

[tbolt]

I'm still practicing but my friend with the fireplace likes them better than me