cutting purpleheart on the bandsaw, wood or the blade?

[thetyreman]

cutting purpleheart the other day on my bandsaw,

I noticed that it made the blade drift a bit, not sure if this is the actual wood or the blade going dull? it seems sharp enough, how long should it last? I've not had this with other woods, even with white oak it cuts through it easily...

 

[sunnybob]

First off,
The harder the wood, the slower the feed needs to be to allow the teeth to do their work.
Slow down and see if that stops the problem. If not, cut a piece of the wood that you usually cut at the usual speed. If the blade drifts, its most likely blunt.

If you hold a blade in your hand (NOT while its on the machine and connected to the electrics), you can test how sharp the teeth are just by resting your finger on it.

 

[ED65]

Purpleheart is hard, sometimes very very hard. Far harder than hard maple/sugar maple which is a step up from oak. It could even be noticeably harder than jarrah or wenge.

Which is so say, cut it at the rate it wants to cut, i.e. let the saw do the work. Hey, that sounds like it could be a mantra or something