Children and Scroll Sawing
One of the best ways to safely introduce children to the workshop and woodworking is by teaching them how to properly use a scroll saw. After showing them how to use the
A request made from an article in the Scroll Saw Woodworking & Crafts magazine
Just the other day the Spring 2019 issue of Scroll Saw Woodworking & Crafts magazine had arrived in the mail. It didn’t take long before it made its way to one of the more popular rooms in my house.
As it happened on one of my visits to this popular room, I spotted the magazine sitting there, on what often becomes the book stand. I eagerly picked it up and started looking through it. As I flipped through the pages, I saw that someone else had already looked through it. They had placed a bookmarker at about one-third of the way through the magazine. I wondered who else would be looking at this magazine. So I quickly opened it to the page where the bookmarker was located.
The bookmarker was a post-it note from a local business. It had some writing on it that looked like the handwriting style of my seven-year-old daughter.
Written on the note was “I want this daddy,” and it had an arrow pointing to a picture of a butterfly cut out by Charles Hand.
I love it that my children appreciate the woodworking and scroll saw items I make. They have accumulated all kinds of little projects I have made for them over the years. Things like jewelry boxes, hearts, rainbows, cars, trucks, rings, necklaces, and many more. They actually keep these things and use them.
I have to say, it is a really good feeling when someone likes your work enough to request it.
Why Teach Children to Scroll Saw?
I was chuckling to myself about this unusual request method. It was then I started to recall that a few months back I had an idea. I thought to myself, “I bet my daughter would like to learn how to use the scroll saw.” When I asked if she would be interested, she quickly replied; “Oh yeah daddy, that would be a lot of fun!” The idea was to teach my daughter how to use the scroll saw.
I was 45 years old when I first started learning how to use the scroll saw. Looking back to when I was a young boy, my dad would pull the cars out from the garage and then turn the garage into a little workshop. My dad did a lot of woodworking back in those days. He had a lot of tools. He had a Shop Smith, table saw and routers. But he did not have a scroll saw.
My dad would often try to convince me to go out to the garage with him. He wanted to teach me things that he knew. Unfortunately, as a teenager, I was just not very interested in woodworking at that time. He was probably very disappointed that I never followed him around his shop, though he never stopped trying to get me out there. The good news is that I don’t think he is disappointed anymore because I bug him quite often now asking questions.
Not learning from my dad when I had the chance is a huge regret for me. A regret that I hope I can make up for. My goal now is to prevent my children from this regret and teach them what I could have learned, but missed out on.
They should learn these skills while they are at a young age. I want them to learn about the different species of wood and how they can behave differently. I want them to know things that you can only learn by experience. Things like how black cherry smells exactly like Pop Tarts when it starts to burn. Or how sassafras sawdust feels like grapple when or how it smells like Pine-Sol, only better.
A Worthy Hobby
If I succeed in teaching them now, by the time they get to their early to mid-teens, they will have several years of experience under their belts. With this experience, it is quite possible they could be able to make far more complex projects that I do. Not only that, but it will keep them occupied with a worthy hobby. It will also help to keep them out of trouble as their teen years approach and opportunities for mischief presents themselves.
Teaching children to use a scroll saw at a young age may be the first encounter they have with power tools. This will almost certainly help to build their interest in woodworking because anything with a motor on it is cool.
What Age to Start Scrolling?
My daughter is seven and my son is four years old. Three years is a world of difference in maturity level. So far I have been able to teach my daughter how to cut straight and curvy lines. She is now beginning to learn how to cut out simple patterns. With each new session, it takes just a few minutes of refreshing to become more comfortable with the scroll saw. Then she is off and running. Every session she learns more and more about scroll sawing.
On the other hand, my son, age four, is not at the age he can safely use the scroll saw. So in the meantime, I have been teaching him the different parts of the scroll saw, such as how to change blades and how to cut. However, at this time he not able to actually run the scroll saw safely.
I would say that I am comfortable starting them off using the scroll saw at around age six or seven years old. Some children could be able to start even earlier, but I have not found that to be the case with my children. I believe a good rule of thumb with this is if they can read the safety labels on the machine, they can start to use the machine.
This is not to say that four years old is too early to learn basic safety rules and other things around the workshop. I’ve been teaching them these things since they could walk.
What to Teach?
I started this process by teaching them some of the basic safety rules required in the shop environment. These are rules that I consistently remind my children of every time they are in my shop. They probably think I sound like a broken DVD when I am in my shop. (NOTE: I only say DVD instead of record because kids nowadays don’t know what a record is.)
These are a few of the shop safety rules:
- Wear goggles/safety glasses
- Hearing protection if needed
- No flip flops, sandals or bare feet
- Long hair must be in a ponytail or pulled up.
- No loose-fitting clothing
- No running or playing in the shop
- Always ask before touching anything.
- Keep hands out of the path of the saw blade
Be Patient
With children and scroll sawing, it can get boring fairly quick especially when things are not happening very fast. Prepping for a scroll saw project can take some time to complete. Although prepping is an important step, to expedite the process when teaching my children, I have a few of the projects already prepped ahead of time. This will spare the children of the more tedious parts and make it more enjoyable since prepping is pretty boring.
Our First Projects
We choose very simple patterns/projects to start off with. The very first projects that we started with was by using some scrap wood. I drew some straight lines on the wood and had my daughter follow the lines. We also used a practice template that we downloaded from SunCatcher Studios which are very helpful.
This is the first time she has ever used the scroll saw so it was a little bit scary for her.
There were a few objectives that we were hoping to accomplish for these first few sessions.
- Get used to the moving blade and all the other distractions going on.
- Learn how to gently push the wood through, but allow the blade to do the work.
- Learn how to steer the piece of wood using both hands, so that she can compensate for drift.
This whole process was mostly to get her used to the saw itself rather than for accuracy of following the lines. Accuracy will come with time and practice.
After she became more comfortable with the saw, I then drew some curvy lines on a scrap piece of wood and had her follow those. We did this for the first several sessions. These sessions were only about 20 to 30 minutes long so that she wouldn’t get too bored. She was so excited when she completed the cuts that she kept the pieces and called it her first puzzle project.
For our next projects, we will be cutting out a cat, a bunny and some other simple patterns she chose. They will be cut out with two interlinking pieces like a jigsaw puzzle. These came from a coloring page I printed from the internet.
Other simple patterns that can be used are found at Free Wood Puzzles.
A very special project that my daughter has requested to make is a heart for her Grammy and Pap and for her Grandma and Pappy. This is a simple heart design that I quickly made using Inkscape, then printed it out. This project will be a little more complex for her however we are taking it slow and working our way towards this goal.
Conclusion
Teaching children to use a scroll saw is a great way to introduce them to the workshop and woodworking. For some children, it could be the start of a lifelong hobby or even a career.
In my experience with c
The scroll saw may be one of the first power tools that children can use safely. This will build confidence and respect for the rules of the workshop. Having this understanding and committing it to memory will be very important for them as they are introduced to the other far more dangerous tools in the shop.
Projects can start out very simple and could become more and more complex with some time and practice. The sky is the limit with how advanced children can become with the scroll saw.
Teaching children to use a scroll saw can also be a fun way to interact and bond with them. It will teach them a useful skill at the same time.
It is a great way to spend quality time with your children and pass on your love of the hobby.
Now, we just have to get mommy out into the shop and teach her how to scroll saw.
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Thank You and Keep on Scrolling
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