Everyone wants to improve safety and cut quality at the table saw and we have a great solution for that!

Bow Products has a number of different products to improve safety around the workshop, but today I’m going to focus on the feather boards.  Feather boards have been around for many years, and are designed to keep pieces tight up against the fence which ends up providing a cleaner quality cut.  Bow Products stepped in and redesigned the feather board to also provide a huge safety feature with it by further preventing kickback with the design and material the “feathers” are made from.

Bow Products makes many different feather boards, but I’m going to focus in on the FeatherPRO as this is what you would use on most table saws.  The FeatherPRO virtually arrests kickback. The EVA foam material the feathers are made from combined with the living hinge design, pushes the board against the fence and absorbs kickback forces if they were to occur. 

The FeatherPro provides 5x greater kickback resistance versus plastic or wood feathers. 

If you’re wondering what kickback is, it can be caused when the material drifts away from the fence and the part of the material already passed the blade starts to come in contact with the back of the blade and the material is shot back at you at very high speeds and can be incredibly dangerous.  The FeatherPro is a great way to help prevent this from happening!

Cutting using the Amana Tool PR1040C 10″ 40T General Purpose ElectroBlu coated Saw Blade

These feather boards also improve the cut quality and you don’t have to worry about whether your piece is staying tight against the fence.  The EVA foam feathers increase the amount of surface contact on the work piece, ensuring a smooth glide and superior infeed control. The feathers also absorb vibration and minimize chatter for a cleaner cut. All of Bow Products feathers are non-marring on even the softest woods.

All of the feathers are reversible, replaceable, and interchangeable. FeatherPRO is versatile in that you can switch out between Standard and UltraFLEX Feathers. Feathers will NOT harm carbide blades or router bits in case of accidental contact. The EVA foam feathers will NOT set off a SawStop table saw if they were to come in contact with the blade, and it will NOT bleed color onto your workpiece or shed material during use.

The FeatherPRO comes with and uses patented AnchorPRO miter hardware that offers fast expansion and super strong hold in the miter slot to ensure the feather board does not move while cutting making it quick and easy to set up.

For smaller table saws the Portable Saw Featherboard works great and will fit nicely on a more compact table.  If you’re working with really thick stock, or are resawing a board, the FeatherDuo will give you some additional height to ensure things remain square and safe.  If you’re wanting to attach a feather board to a fence the FencePro feather board will help ensure things stay flat on the table.

In conclusion, Bow Products has done a great job reworking the feather board design and really improving on it.  These are tools I use in my shop to help me keep things nice and safe, I’m sure you will love having these in your shop as well!