Hardest wood on chain

[CGC4200]

What is the hardest wood you cut?
Mine is scalybark/shellbark hickory. The wood is tough enough,
but the outer bark will booger up a chain almost as fast as
fence wire.
The wood is real good for barbeque pits and grill wood.
I haul some of the small limbs up & cut them up with a carbide
tip circular saw and mix them with charcoal on the grill.

 

[jredjim]

osage !!!AKA.. monkey ball...like concrete, secondly locust

 

[hoss]

+1 on the osage, live oak, locust and gum is no picnic.

 

[trimmmed]

Black Locust

 

[huskystihl]

I dread the mythical ironwood tree that needs to be removed. Locust is no hayday either, i've cut some that was like laying your saw into a sidewalk.

 

[hoss]

Any of the above when cured will put a hurtin on even a freshly sharpened chain.

 

[woodbooga]

I'm too far north in the transitional forest to see hickory. And not much locust that I've gotten my hands on.

I'd have to go with long-dead red oak. The stuff that's long lost its bark and sapwood. Just partially petrified heartwood. What I call fossiloak - like cutting through dinosaur bones. Stuff's great firewood. With all the green moisture out and the tight grain, it'll stay dry inside even after a soaking rain.

I'm a lot of times surprised how hard a wood black birch can be - not the lighter white birch.

The out west guys say eucalyptus is tough on the chains.

 

[HorseShoeInFork]

Dead on stump blackjack.

 

[BloodOnTheIce]

I dread the mythical ironwood tree that needs to be removed. Locust is no hayday either, i've cut some that was like laying your saw into a sidewalk.

I've been helping clear the Iron Woods and Locust from my parents woods, give the young Maples and Oaks room. My stepdad always looks at me funny when I take 5+ chains with me to cut up only a handful of trees. You can't have the rakers down too far, or the damn saw bounces all over the place.

 

[dumbarky]

Black jack oak, aka: black oak, bastard oak. Coming in a close second is Scalely Bark Hickory.

 

[StihlyinEly]

I cut a lot of maple and some red oak for the "hardwoods." Not really anything to compare with these hickory and locust fellas, though.

 

[dingeryote]

Standing dead Windrow Osage, with 50yr old double strand barb wire in it.
Ya look forward to finding the wire like the prize in a cereal box.

Locust ain't bad really. Just go at it like ya hate it and after 4-5 chains you get the rythm. Cut, Cut, Cut, file. Cut, cut,cut, file. And cuss really loud!
I LIKE cutting Locust, problem is finding it around here.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

 

[Gologit]

Dry madone is the hardest stuff on chains I've ever cut.

 

[RVALUE]

Natalie














Hard to keep the saw running.








With petrified a close second

 

[Bowtie]

Standing dead Windrow Osage, with 50yr old double strand barb wire in it.
Ya look forward to finding the wire like the prize in a cereal box.

Yep. Osage Orange is murder on a chain especially when its been dead in a pile for 20 years. but it sure is damn good firewood!

A brand new chain acts dull with some of that dead hedge.

Yeah, I have found a lot of barbed wire in hedge, as well as a steel cable, and a railroad spike a couple times...:censored:

 

[jredjim]

AHHH. trimming fence rows it's almost like Christmas you never know what you might find.....except it is usually bad for you chains:censored:

 

[bitzer]

Mockernut Hickory and some dead standing Elm.

 

[ZeroJunk]

I've cut hickory when you could literally see sparks fly. I don't think it's the wood so much as the bark.

 

[dingeryote]

Then there's high silica Black Cherry that has been skidded on sand

With 50yr old double strand Barbed wire in it.....

Ya gotta learn to keep the ax just out of reach, lest it get thrown about in the woods.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

 

[huskystihl]

Standing dead Windrow Osage, with 50yr old double strand barb wire in it.
Ya look forward to finding the wire like the prize in a cereal box.

Locust ain't bad really. Just go at it like ya hate it and after 4-5 chains you get the rythm. Cut, Cut, Cut, file. Cut, cut,cut, file. And cuss really loud!
I LIKE cutting Locust, problem is finding it around here.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

That sounds about right. I can cut for a couple days in the air with a t-handle and maybe have to file. If it's honey locust I file every other tank, black locust isn't bad. Ironwood though, i've hit knots and pulled my bar out thinking I hit a spike and nothings there and thats with a brand new chain. My saws have actually looked at me and said wtf? cutting that stuff.