You gotta use a fresh, sharp blade on the big logs. I notice whether i'm cutting hardwood or soft, anything over 24" needs to be cut slower & a sharp blade makes all the difference. My mill has a 16hp motor, pretty small but works just fine. The clutch begins slipping if the load is too much, so bogging is never a problem. I cut some 28" rotten pine a couple months ago that I thought the mill would zip through, but it seemed as difficult as an oak or maple of the same size. That pretty much assured my suspicion that it's not the hardness of the wood or power of the engine as much as it was the force it takes to clear the debris. The gullets fill with dust that they have to drag through the cut, which causes friction. The multiple blade teeth at any given moment inside the cut collectively increase the friction drag. That means on wide logs, whether hard or soft, will put a lot of stress on the saw. Even though a stronger motor might force the blade on through without bogging, it's still a 1.25" blade & there's still the same number of teeth in the cut, so it's still being stressed.
I tossed on an old, very dry 22" dia. desert ironwood log just to see. With a fresh blade it cut just as smooth and clean as it did with a 22" box elder. The blade dulled much quicker. It dulled after 5 slabs, actually. But that's well seasoned & gritty desert ironwood :msp_scared: 12"-15" logs are much more dependent on hardness. It cuts poplars & aspens like butter where maples & oaks of the same size are slightly slower going. But once I bust 24", it doesn't matter what hardness or type the wood is. I think for bigger logs, fewer TPI would be best, like one tooth per 3 inches would cut best. I don't know because I haven't tried it yet, but i'm pretty sure. I plan to try if I can find some blades like that, maybe even modify some old blades & try it. Con of that will be needing to resharpen more often. Nice trade off if it works, though.
