From My Red Toolbox comes a coping saw; the Eclipse 7CP, made in England. Initially, coping wood trim was never a big favorite of mine and happened only when my boss made me. Now, I don’t mind coping an occasional piece of crown or large base cap for a better fit than mitering.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Experience:

I started my carpentry career remodeling the Victorian style houses of San Francisco. Inside those decorative homes, sometimes all the trim would be coped.

Joining wood molding by method of coping saw results in a high-quality inside corner.

In order to describe my common use for this saw; the process of coping trim, let’s imagine we have to put crown molding in a 10′ x 12′ rectangular room. We cut two boards the full length of the wall with square butt-joints and install them at each end of the room. The two missing lengths are cut the full length, 12 feet, and then comes the cool part. We cut the molding profile into the end of the board with the coping saw so that it mates against the first pieces we installed.

Ironically, the easiest way to figure out the trim profile is to bevel the piece on the miter saw, at which point you may be asking why you are bothering with a coping saw.

The coping joint allows the wood trim to shrink and expand without the joint opening. Coping is old-school but it yields a higher quality product than today’s machine-cut miter joints because it allows for expansion and installs perfectly on imperfect 90º corners.

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Links:
Robert Larson 540-2000 Coping Saw
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