Scroll saws 

Frederick Risser used a Barnes foot-treadle scrolls to make the tiny, delicate cuts of his pattern. Patterns cut with a scroll or jigsaw have been popular with woodworkers for over a hundred years. Today's woodworkers use electric-powered saws and commercial patterns, usually less complicated than this one of the Lord's Prayer design. 

Scroll saws were very popular in the 1890s. The mail-order catalogs like Sears and Montgomery Ward carried scroll saws. (In 1895, Wards advertised them as bracket saws. A kit including three drills, six blades, a wrench, and assembly directions sold for $3.37.) 


Foot-powered scroll saw
Montgomery Wards catalog, 1905

Many parents bought scroll saws as gifts for their sons. Heavier models were made for cabinetmakers, modelmakers, printers, jewelers, and other professionals that needed a saw for close, accurate work on wood, bone, shell, and softer metals. Some of the foot-powered saws could cut through three-inch board at 800 strokes per minute. The operator accomplished this by pedaling around or up and down with his feet while guiding the wood along the pattern with his hands!