Very hard, hard wood

[Samfire]

last week I picked up a piece of wood that I thought was a bargain; it is a plank of maple, 2m long 220mm wide and 23mm thick. I only paid a fiver for it, but I wished I hadn't bothered because it is really hard work when it comes to sawing it.

I've been cutting a piece of ash which is slightly thicker with no problem at all. Are there any hard woods that are known for being difficult to cut and is thick maple one of them.

There again, perhaps I'm using the wrong sort of blade. I have tried reverse tooth size 5 and size 12 with the latter being the best. Any comments appreciated.

 

[stevebuk]

hi samfire
maple is a very hard wood, depending on what i was cutting i would use either #7 or #9 FD ultra reverse blade , i wish i was closer then i would have bought it off you as i am running low on light coloured wood and need to get more..
remember to use fast speed and slow feed rate when cutting..

 

[Samfire]

Thanks Steve, I will invest in some 7s and 9s and turn the speed up. Are there any other hardwoods that are particularly hard.

 

[Chippygeoff]

Maple is notorious for being hard but then a lot of other hardwoods can be hard depending if they were kiln dried or air dried. I use maple a lot as it can have a really nice grain, what they call curly maple. As with all the hardwoods I use I cover the pattern with clear packing tape as this reduces the friction and allows the blade to cut quicker and prevent burning.

 

[nathandavies]

try using some ipe, I did a load of decking with it. it's a mentally hard wood, I f***ed all my tools doing that decking. I believe it is so dense that it is one of the only woods that will sink in water. nice stuff though. cutting some old sleepers the other day with a chainsaw, mostly oak but then got to one that made the chainsaw cry. not sure if that was ipe as well, very red and dense again.