Welcome to Pedally Steve's Web Site

Over the years the same questions keep popping up so here’s a quick FAQ of the most popular ones –

 

Q – What are you doing?

A – Cutting colourful names out of birch plywood. Pedally Steve cuts his unique "Pedal Powered Names" on the corner of St Sampson's Square, York (map), on dry weekends and holidays throughout the year. The "Pedal Powered Names" (and the show) are only available from Pedally Steve in person.

Q – What is the saw you’re using?  Did you make it yourself?

A – The saw is a modern copy of a Barnes No 2 Velocipede which was patented in the USA in 1876.  The originals were made of cast iron and weighed over a hundredweight (50 kgs in modern money); this one is cast aluminium and weighs about half that.  The British equivalent was the Hobbies Fretsaw which had a treadle (like a sewing machine) rather than pedals.

Q – Do you mark up the names first?

A – No, it’s all done freehand, I’ve had a lot of practice.

Q – Does the sawblade have teeth all round? How long do they last?

A – No, the teeth face the front which is why I have to spin the wood round as I cut.  On a busy day I’ll use between six and a dozen blades.

Q – How did you start doing this and where did you learn?

A – Over twenty years ago we were doing a lot of events and we wanted something to make us stand out from all the other toymakers who were around at the time.  I saw a reference to the saw in a book and tracked the maker down (they have since retired) and took it from there.  I’m self-taught and every year I change something and (hopefully) get better.

Q – Can you cut things other than names?

A – Yes, but it depends.  I always cut freehand on the saw so simple shapes (cats, dogs, hearts, guitars, shamrocks etc) are possible.  Beyond that it depends on how confident (foolhardy) I’m feeling.  I have cut Arabic and Cyrillic scripts but cannot cut ideograms as I can’t cut the inside of the shapes and they’re not a cursive script.  Accents over letters are no problem.

Q – What’s the longest name you’ve cut?

A – Christianostephanopolous.  I’ve also cut Super­cali­fragi­listic­expiali­docious just to prove I could do it.  In fact it’s a bit of a cheat as nothing can be longer than about eighteen inches as it won’t swing round so the more letters the smaller they get.

Q – Have you cut any unusual names?

A – Each year brings its crop of alternative spellings so I now know 22 ways of spelling Amy!  I think my two ‘favourites’ were ‘Loocee’ and ‘Dygnatea’.

Q – Do you do anywhere other than York?

A – Sometimes, but York is my ‘bread and butter’.  If you’re running an event then get in touch and I’ll always consider it.