Hardest wood on chain

[Zero Gravity]

Northern Michigan Ironwood. I have blued a brand new Stihl chain in one tank of fuel. There is a reason most people will let you cut it for free!
ZG

 

[The Burning Rom]

Northern Michigan Ironwood. I have blued a brand new Stihl chain in one tank of fuel. There is a reason most people will let you cut it for free!
ZG

Wow, that's pretty bad.

I cut ironwood for 4 hours straight last weekend with my 200T...only stopping to refuel. Never had a problem with the chain dulling. Maybe our ironwood is softer down here in WI. Sure makes good firewood though

Ironwood is probably the toughest wood I've cut through. We had to buck a couple oaks a few years back for the mill, but the 011 had no problem with those....yes....the 011

 

[iowa]

Shagbark Hickory around here

It's even worse after it has been skidded to the landing. The bark holds rocks and stones that are chain magnets, as if the wood wasn't tough enough. Kinda like biting into a black olive only to find the pit is still there.

Take Care

Yup. Just dragged one out of a gully. Been down a while. Had tons of dirt and rocks in it. YUCK

 

[PLAYINWOOD]

Any wood thats been skidded in sand, or better yet, getting logs delivered in the winter time with the road salt and sand caked on the wood.

I've had to sharpen my 4 times to one tank of fuel.

Iron wood is tough but 2 year old oak or sugar maple is the hardest on chains

 

[lspmmp]

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.

The toughest I've come across is Ironwood. I've cut a couple that have thrown sparks from my chain.

 

[Mac_Muz]

Im sorry to say that I never got pics of the wooden piston... but it came out pretty good. I oiled the piston up well and it actually gave surprisingly good compression. The ryobi was a free string trimmer / wiper snipper and it ran for a while with the new piston. But in the end I got sick of pulling starting the ryobi – 15 pulls to get it started..... and thats just a ryobi thing. So i just used the stihl instead – always starts

I actually got the idea from an old man who told me how they used oak wooden pistons in 2-stroke motorbikes in the WWII in germany.

I took that as a joke, but the Germans used a wood called Lignumvitae (sounds like lig numb vite ee, incase I spelled it wrong) to make diesel U boat engine bearings of in WW-2)


Once I had a small pice and sanded (think grind) it to make a letter opener. it would whittle pine easy.

 

[Rookie1]

I was just cutting pallets. Id say Oak with nails in it is the hardest.

 

[Fish]

Hedge/Osage hands down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Period!!!!

 

[smokechase II]

For Me

For me its been mountain mohagony.

===========

"Specific Gravity

Probably the best way to appreciate the relative hardness of different woods is the concept of "specific gravity," a numerical scale based on 1.0 for pure water. Without getting too mathematical, the specific gravity of a substance can easily be calculated by dividing its density (in grams per cubic centimeter) by the density of pure water (one gram per cubic centimeter). The brilliant Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes discovered over 2,100 years ago that a body in water is buoyed up by a force equal to weight of the water displaced. Archimedes reportedly came upon this discovery in his bathtub, and ran out into the street without his clothing shouting "Eureka, I have found it." Since one gram of pure water occupies a volume of one cubic centimeter, anything having a specific gravity greater than 1.0 will sink in pure water. The principles of buoyancy and specific gravity are utilized in many ways, from scuba diving and chemistry to the hardness of dry, seasoned wood. Some of the heaviest hardwood trees and shrubs of the United States have specific gravities between 0.80 and 0.95; including shagbark hickory (Carya ovata), persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) and ironwood (Ostrya virginiana) of the eastern states, and canyon live oak (Quercus chrysolepis), Engelmann oak (Q. engelmannii), hollyleaf cherry (Prunus ilicifolia) and Santa Cruz Island ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus ssp. asplenifolius) of southern California. Although some of these trees are called ironwoods, their dense, dry wood will still float in water. Since the pure cell wall material (lignin and cellulose)) of wood has a density of about 1.5 grams per cubic centimeter, even the world's heaviest hardwoods generally have specific gravities less than 1.5 due to tiny pores (lumens) within the cell walls. True ironwoods include trees and shrubs with dry, seasoned woods that actually sink in water, with specific gravities greater than 1.0. They include lignum vitae (Guaicum officinale, 1.37); quebracho (Schinopsis balansae, 1.28); pau d'arco (Tabebuia serratifolia, 1.20); knob-thorn (Acacia pallens, 1.19); desert ironwood (Olneya tesota, 1.15); and ebony (Diospyros ebenum, 1.12). To appreciate the weight of these hardwoods, compare them with tropical American balsa (Ochroma pyramidale), one of the softest and lightest woods with a specific gravity of only 0.17."

= = = = = = = = = =
Also:
http://www.tuktupaddles.com/woodselection.html

Of course, your mileage may vary.

================

Trees With Dry (Seasoned) Wood That Sinks In Water
Olneya tesota (Desert Ironwood): 1.15
Guaiacum officinale) (Lignum Vitae): 1.37
Cercocarpus betuloides Mountain Mahogany: 1.10
Diospyros ebenum) Ebony: 1.12