wood too hard to cut?

Re: wood too hard to cut?

Sean Troy

>Sounds like you got into some Iron Wood. Hard to work with but the heart wood can make some spectacular turnings. The sapwood can be pretty also.

abrasive wood

Rick Allen

>Most any wood can have an abrasive imbedded in it or coating it. Just like a chainsaw will dull the instant it hits dirt. So too will a bandsaw blade if it hits some dirt on the outside of a turning blank or silica imbedded in the wood. Less dense open grain woods can often be wors to deal with in this respect than dense hard woods.

Re: wood too hard to cut?

John Lucas

>Ken

If it's been setting very long it probably has dirt and sand imbedded in it. It will dull a tool quickly. I had the "bright" idea of turning some oak barnwood into hand mirrors for a festival I was in that included an antique tractor show. I thought nastalgia would make them sell. 5 years later I still have 2 of the dozen I made. Besides being terrible sellers they ate up my bandsaw blade and dulled my tools. I would make one pass across the wood and have to resharpen. Then I might get 2 passes before dulling. Once I got through the outer layer it cut pretty good. I decided it was 100 years of sand and dust imbedded in the outer layer.

Re: wood too hard to cut?

Gary Evans, Tallassee, TN

>Ken,

Some woods don't have to be old and dirty to be abrasive.

I was helping a friend cut up a green Eastern Red Cedar log 12" in diameter the other day. About four cuts with the chainsaw were enough to require resharpening.

Remember that trees take up minerals through the roots for use in their metabolic processes. It's not unusual to find residues left in the tissues.

Gary

Re: wood too hard to cut?

ken chase

>John:

What you and others say makes sense. Since this is desert there is much sand and dust. I guess the logical thing to do is learn to sharpen my band saw blades. Is that feasable? Seems like a daunting task.

Thanks

Ken

Re: wood too hard to cut?

John Lucas

>Ken

There have been a couple of good articles on sharpening bandsaw blades. Maybe you could do a search of this news group or a google search. It's not that hard. I've tried a couple of ways and they work but I can buy bandsaw blades a few miles from here for $6 so I don't sharpen them anymore.

Re: wood too hard to cut?

Barry Irby

>Ken, there was a discussion here, or maybe on the flat side about sharpening them on the saw with a dremel tool and a cut off wheel a few weeks ago. Someone posted a picture. Also, in one of Richard Raffins books there was a picture of him sharpening one on a grinder. Having said that, I agree with John, buy cheap and let them roll.

You can buy carbide tipped blades, but they are so expensive, I can't imagine. I have ruined blades in a matter of seconds. (I'm getting better, I can usually make them last minutes now.) To trash a blade that is under ten dollars is one thing, but to kink one that was over a hundred would hurt my feelings. It you are hitting sand and debris I doubt carbide would hold up enough better to make up the difference in cost.

I did find a local source for bi-metal blades and tried them at about twice the price. They were thicker an took a wider kerf. Seems to require more effort even when sharp. When they were getting dull, I did not have enough horses.

Re: wood too hard to cut?

ken chase

>Thanks. I'm paying about $25.00 at Suffolk machinery. Problem where I live there is no supply. I think I will find someplace I can have them made up at the required 149 inches for a reasonable price and have them send me a dozen. Probably won't cost more than two of the Timberwolf blades. My Timberwolf did not last long enough to justify the price. Any suggestions?

Ken

Re: wood too hard to cut?

John K Jordan

>>sharpening bandsaw blades

I've been sharpening my bandsaw blades, or rather, the coarse-toothed blades. I use a dremel with a metal cutoff wheel and make just a touch to each tooth. It makes the blades cut like new, or maybe my imagination, better than new. I clean any gunk off the blade first with a wire brush.

JKJ in East TN

Call PS Supply that sells the Timberwolf blades.

tdaniel

>Tell them what you are sawing and have them send you the appropriate blades for it. I haven't found anything that I could not saw with the correct blade.

TD

Re: Call PS Supply that sells the Timberwolf blade *LINK*

TomW In SouthJersey

>I just bought a Timberwolf blade from Cutting Edge Tools. I had found them through a search I did on this site.

Nice people to deal with. The price for the blade was about half what I saw it elsewhere. Also it seems the price on the Mylands I bought from them had gone up but they honored the price that was quoted on their website.

Its the first time I've used Timberwolf blades so I don't have anything to compare it to.

Tom


Cutting Edge Tools

Re: wood too hard to cut?

Don Henthorn

>Ken since you have found the site where down trees are taken I think your best bet is to check out the site often and get the wood before it has had a chance to accumulate the abrasive dust that flies around so plentifully in Arizona. Now I am sure that some of it has gained a lot of grit while standing, but there are places in Phoenix and other cities where trees are more protected. Perhaps yopu could befriend a worker at the dump site with a bowl or two and have him help you find the wood that comes from cleaner areas. Just a thought.

Re: wood too hard to cut?

Ron Ainge

>I lived in that part of the country for a while and as was stated before I think you got hold of some Iron Wood. It very nice wood if you can ever get it worked, however there is a major problem in that it dulls tool so fast that you may think that you will wear them out sharpining them. I tried to cut a piece of that with a new carbide tooth saw blade and that ruined that blade. Good luck turning it.