Got bettah
Sunday I got back on the horse (the sawhorse, that is), and worked on some shell. I was alert, instead of tired like I was Friday night when I broke those 3 pieces. I was very, very careful, and tried to really look at the piece I had and determine which side would be most advantageous to cut off first, leaving greater support for the remaining piece. 
I also discovered, quite by accident (as it often happens), a technique for avoiding breakage of the thin pieces. It’s a little clumsy yet and I hope to refine it, but initial results are good. I realized that the clamp was right out—I needed to be moving the piece as I cut it, which takes quite a bit of finger strength. I also figured out that my attempts to brace the piece I was sawing on both ends was actually putting pressure on the far end, more than likely contributing to the breakage. What I ended up doing was bracing the backside of the sawblade against the wood of the bench pin and sawing away from me, stopping from time to time to pull the shell closer to me so that all the already-cut section was firmly and flatly supported on the bench pin under my fingers. The only weight on the remaining piece was that of the sawing itself, and since I kept taking up the slack, it got smaller and smaller. Then I would angle the saw from the usual perpendicular to a slant as I finished the cut. I remembered that from one of my books, and it really helped. The finishing of the cut wasn’t as abrupt that way, and less prone to breakage.
Here’s another partially finished piece. I notice that the paua is a “dirtier” and heavy sawdust than the green abalone. It tends to hang around.
I took a break at this point and glued up 3 more pieces to replace the 3 I’d broken in the first round. I didn’t want to bother if the sawing went badly again, because I might have had to look into different sawblades.
I can see that even though these design lines are thinner than in the first two projects, they’re still not thin enough to allow for a perfect abutment of pieces. I will try the stencil idea Phaedrous gave me next time and see if I don’t do better. I also can see that my shaky hand drawing results in less than smooth sawing. I’m not sure what to do about that yet. Maybe I need to get one of those French curve dealies to trace around for vines and whatever else I can come up with.
Next up were the 4 flowers. They were quite the test for my sawing skills, and I’d say I scored a C-. Maybe a D+. My ability to turn inside corners by “marching in place” with the saw as I slowly turned the handle (as recommended in my books) leave much to be desired in tight corners like these flowers have between the petals, and I put some nicks and notches in places I didn’t want them. Of course, those notches were in places really hard to smooth out with a small file. The first flower I did I sawed in sections, but that can leave edges that need to be filed. The second one, as you can see in the picture below, I did in one more or less continuous cut.
I broke a couple blades cutting the second pair, mostly due to my poor cornering—the blade wasn’t moving, but by god, my hand was! But I am pleased to report that I’m now wearing out the blades before I’m breaking them in most cases. That seems like some kind of progress. MOP is harder work than the abalone and the paua; I don’t know if that’s because of its consistency, or the fact that it’s thicker than either of the other two shell types I’ve got. I guess next time I order it, I’ll try to keep it to 1 mm; I think the MOP I have is 1.5 mm. More consistency in thickness will help me at sanding time, too.
I got so focused on my cutting at one point that I forgot to stop and went right into the finger that was holding down the piece of shell. Note to self: Stop sawing when you hit meat. I think my guitar callus saved me. It broke the skin, but there was no bleeding. All I can say is, thank goodness I wasn’t using power tools, or my career as a guitarist would be over before it barely started.
I still have the 3 replacement pieces to cut, but their glue was still tacky when I was ready to finish up for the day. I don’t know if I’ll have time to work on it this week again, as I have open mic tomorrow night, and I don’t seem to do so well sawing after a long day at work; my brain is fatigued. And then I’m in San Francisco Saturday and in transit a good chunk of Sunday. So we’ll see.
