1906 Crescent Band Saw

Tom was the proud owner of a 1906 Crescent band saw until one of the other "makers" in his shop bought a bigger one. The Crescent allowed a 26" wide piece of wood to be cut. The new Neighborhood Wood Shop band saw allows a 36" piece wide piece of wood to be cut. Because of the thinness of the blade, a band saw can cut curves and a radius in a wide piece of wood. For this reason, it is indispensable in making arched-top windows and doors.

The 1906 Crescent was adopted by one of Tom's friends who owns a painting business. The Crescent Machine Company manufactured band saws like this from at least 1902 until 1940 when the company was sold to Rockwell, a division of Rockler Companies. This particular 26" band saw was manufactured 21 of the 38 years under the control of the Crescent Machine Company and are still highly prized as valuable vintage machines. Today Rockwell no longer makes band saws this large; the new manufacturers of larger sized band saws are Silver Manufacturing Company and Northfield Woodworking Machinery.

This saw excels at cutting curves (making a radius), resawing very thick lumber, and cutting logs into lumber.


The photo below shows Philipp, one of the other makers in the wood shop, and Phillip's nephew, using the 1906 Crescent band saw.  

Porch Finials on Summit

One of Tom's customers asked him to recreate eleven (11) large finials on his exterior porches (first and second floor) and exterior hand railing. Tom owns a lathe and he was happy to have an out-of-the-ordinary job to do. He made the finials out of cypress wood, because cypress has natural oil and exterior finials made from an oily wood will last at least three times longer than ones made of pine. It took him 3 weeks in his Selby Avenue shop to turn the finials. The photo below shows the finials after they were turned; the last item before delivery is always priming the wood with oil paint.

When they were delivered, his customer loved the new finials; he was very proud of them. Here they are sitting on Ed's Summit Avenue porch. There are two porches on the front of this house - one on the second floor and one on the first floor - with turned spindle railings on both porches.

The spindles were mostly in good shape, but the finials had split and cracked due to weather damage over the 100 years of the home's existence. Tom watched as his customer had the second floor porch floor (which was also the roof of the first floor porch) torn off and replaced, the railings removed, repaired, and replaced. And finally Tom's beautiful eleven (11) finials were placed on top of the newell posts. They were only primed and not painted when this photo was taken.

And here are the finials after they were installed and painted.

More Windows from TC Woodworks

Tom is painting a replacement storm window in his shop in Saint Paul in this photo.  As a general rule, most customers get their windows primed and then have them painted using the paint that exactly matches the rest of their woodwork.  This window does not have the glass in yet, but Tom does install window glass.


Below Tom made an eyebrow window for one of his clients. It looks deceptively easy to make, but the whole upper part which encompasses what would normally be three sides of an ordinary window is one continuous curve. This type of curve must be created on a band saw, which he has at his St. Paul shop. Don't try this at home.

These two give you a sample of what TC Woodworks can do - from the ordinary to the "more complicated than it looks" windows in many historic homes in St. Paul and environs.

Below are some more finished windows sitting in the wood shop, primed but not yet painted. The customer can get windows delivered either primed so the customer can do the painting, or painted by TC Woodworks.