Whats the hardest wood you ever cut?

[zogger]

two come to mind

Years ago a huge dutch elm trunk I was given. Cut real thick cookies for coffee tables from it, around a 5.5 ft diameter trunk..with a crosscut saw.
That got to be a lot like work..serious beautiful wood though.

Had to deliver one of those table tops myself up to a second story apartment...I honestly didn't think I could make it about half way up, but accomplished it eventually. Hard, heavy, dense wood. Did I mention heavy?

Second nastiest, is around here where I am now, big old shagbark, grampaw trees. Whenever I cut any now I first knock off as much of the bark as possible with an axe and prybar and whatever else I feel like using, then wire brush and broom where the cuts will be. If you don't, lucky to get two cuts fresh sharp to sawdust. And not much sawdust...

 

[wsg]

As mentioned earlier by a few..Osage orange was hardest that ive seen.

 

[Rudolf73]

I was felling a tree a while ago (68" dry red gum) and I had to sharpen the chain twice to get it on the ground. Got the firewood contractor in to cut it up and he gave up after a little while, to hard on his gear he said.

 

[046]

seasoned Osage Orange

 

[thook]

Seasoned gum, bois d'arc, dutch elm, locust, and shagbark.

Years ago, my wife and I used to drive down to Chester, AR (about 20 min's south of Winslow here) to gleen the stumps and logs from the sawmill before they permanently shut down. I hated going there, but the wood was $10 a trailer and easy to acquire.....ie, I didn't have to hike out into the woods and drag it home by sled. I hated it because much of the time the bark was full of dirt and had to clean it up before cutting. And, some of that wood was so hard sparks would fly and always had to resharpen a couple/few times. On top of that, I always had some logs I couldn't hand split once I got it home! And, we thought it might be easier...ha! Now, I just stick to hiking out with my sled. Glad I learned my trees in boy scouts.

 

[Teddy.Scout]

I had the pleasure of cutting Rosewood burls.
Actual they were just the butt wood or the foot above ground and the foot below.
Beautiful, but nasty to a chain and bar.

 

[luke777]

My friend and I made a snare drum by throwing billets of Cooktown Iron wood up into a big metal lathe. Needed carbide tipped chains on the saws to get it down and the swarf peels off that stuff like cast iron in the lathe. I'm not kidding. Unbelievable timber and incredibly heavy. He is still making drums actually. Incredibly beautiful instruments. The wood gets darker and darker the longer it is exposed to the air. We both think it will end up almost black after many years.

That stuff is the hardest timber I have ever dealt with.

Luke

 

[zxcvbob]

The toughest wood I've cut is mesquite. Bos D'arc ("bodark" or osage orange) is right on up there too.

The toughest I've ever felled with an ax was hickory. That tree didn't fall until I cut every last fiber. ("He chose... poorly")

 

[JimmyT]

Bodock and Ironwood

 

[Teddy.Scout]

Another one for thought,
Red bud (cersis canadensis).
Well she don't get big, but a couple will make you touch up your chain.

 

[thook]

My friend and I made a snare drum by throwing billets of Cooktown Iron wood up into a big metal lathe. Needed carbide tipped chains on the saws to get it down and the swarf peels off that stuff like cast iron in the lathe. I'm not kidding. Unbelievable timber and incredibly heavy. He is still making drums actually. Incredibly beautiful instruments. The wood gets darker and darker the longer it is exposed to the air. We both think it will end up almost black after many years.

That stuff is the hardest timber I have ever dealt with.

Luke

I bet a djembe of that would be real nice, too. :msp_w00t:

 

[MCW]

Hardest wood I've ever cut was a long time dead standing River Box (common name, not sure of exactly which Box species it was). In south east New South Wales on a river flat. Was helping a mate drop trees for firewood. It bluntened (and damaged) 3 x 32" 3/8" semi chisel chains on the 7900 getting it on the ground and I cut 3 cookies off it with the 3120 and .404" semi chisel and was bluntening a 36" chain per cookie (tree about 30" round). Was also as heavy as lead and tapping two pieces together sounded like hitting two files together. My mate had never seen anything like it, I had never seen anything like it, and not only are they one of the hardest species of tree on the planet but we think it may have also copped a lightening strike at some stage. The cut surface actually looked like glass. 95% of that tree is still laying there as we gave up on it. The few rounds he managed to get home couldn't even be split with his petrol splitter. We both still talk of that tree like it was possessed or something...

 

[pioneer saws]

Hardest wood I've ever cut was a long time dead standing River Box (common name, not sure of exactly which Box species it was). In south east New South Wales on a river flat. Was helping a mate drop trees for firewood. It bluntened (and damaged) 3 x 32" 3/8" semi chisel chains on the 7900 getting it on the ground and I cut 3 cookies off it with the 3120 and .404" semi chisel and was bluntening a 36" chain per cookie (tree about 30" round). Was also as heavy as lead and tapping two pieces together sounded like hitting two files together. My mate had never seen anything like it, I had never seen anything like it, and not only are they one of the hardest species of tree on the planet but we think it may have also copped a lightening strike at some stage. The cut surface actually looked like glass. 95% of that tree is still laying there as we gave up on it. The few rounds he managed to get home couldn't even be split with his petrol splitter. We both still talk of that tree like it was possessed or something...



I hear ya MCW, the hardest wood i've ever cut was Yellow Box and Grey Box, these trees are so dense and the rings so close together, they are chain killers, one yellow box sticks in my mind, it took 3 chains to cut 3 big cookies. I think the dry harsh aussie climate has a lot to do with the hardness. Certainly worth the effort to cut as it burns in the wood heater with an intense heat.

 

[Rudolf73]

Hardest wood I've ever cut was a long time dead standing River Box (common name, not sure of exactly which Box species it was). In south east New South Wales on a river flat. Was helping a mate drop trees for firewood. It bluntened (and damaged) 3 x 32" 3/8" semi chisel chains on the 7900 getting it on the ground and I cut 3 cookies off it with the 3120 and .404" semi chisel and was bluntening a 36" chain per cookie (tree about 30" round). Was also as heavy as lead and tapping two pieces together sounded like hitting two files together. My mate had never seen anything like it, I had never seen anything like it, and not only are they one of the hardest species of tree on the planet but we think it may have also copped a lightening strike at some stage. The cut surface actually looked like glass. 95% of that tree is still laying there as we gave up on it. The few rounds he managed to get home couldn't even be split with his petrol splitter. We both still talk of that tree like it was possessed or something...

I have an idea Matt, quite a few sticks of dynamite - job done. Then once the dust has cleared you can pick up a whole lot of kindling.

 

[treeoperations]

yall reacon the aussies will win, well i best think you boys come here to new zealand,

ive cut aussie hard wood rail way sleepers, they will kill a semi chisel chain after a few cuts and thats with changing the angles of the cutters.

on the farm we have these stunning trees called Puriri or Vitex Lucens, when the branches die or the tree dies and has been dead for a while that #### gets stupid hard, as hard as most of the aussie eucalypts, then to add something truely nuts to the mix, in the old days they used puriri to make fence posts, they go grey coloured on the out side and they go Black on the inside, and after 50 years as a fence post they get stupid hard so hard you touch your chain on it it just makes a nick in the post and starts throwing sparks, it is the best fire wood but its near impossible to cut it truely is nuts.

there is another tree here called ake ake or dodonaea viscosa. its only a small shruby sort of a tree, the moaris ( the poeple here before the english got here) used to use it for weapons and making other tools from it, ive run into that a few times and i made the fatal mistake of feeding a 4inch branch into my chipper and it destroyed the blades and the anvil to the point of replacement, i asked my groundy how he cut it and he said he used the big saw, which had a full chisel chain that was half worn cause it kill the 346
with semi chisel on it and it ripped cutters clean off the chain.

 

[David (saltas)]

All the Aussies have been talking about the eucalyptus they cut

They know better than to try and cut up our acacias

Janka Hardness In Pounds Of Force {lbf}
{Acacia peuce} Waddy Wood 4500 - Specific Gravity 1.425
Gidgee {Acacia cambagei} 4270 - Specific Gravity 1.35
Acacia georginae} Gidgee Georgina 4270 - Specific Gravity 1.33
Acacia nigrescens} Knob Thorn 4290 - Specific Gravity 1.21
Snakewood Australian {Acacia xiphophylla} 4150
Wattle Lakewood {Acacia enervia} 4150
Brown Spearwood {Acacia rhodoxylon} 4100

 

[MCW]

I hear ya MCW, the hardest wood i've ever cut was Yellow Box and Grey Box, these trees are so dense and the rings so close together, they are chain killers, one yellow box sticks in my mind, it took 3 chains to cut 3 big cookies. I think the dry harsh aussie climate has a lot to do with the hardness. Certainly worth the effort to cut as it burns in the wood heater with an intense heat.

Yeah you're right mate on the climate. I've mentioned it before but eucalypts from higher rainfall areas don't hold a candle to exactly the same species that have grown in areas with an average rainfall of 11" or less and summer temps in the mid 40's. Other species are the same.

I have an idea Matt, quite a few sticks of dynamite - job done. Then once the dust has cleared you can pick up a whole lot of kindling.

Ahh Dynamite It would be like one big exploding Porcupine!

 

[lumberjackau]

The different Box trees and redgums sure are hard to cut, but they are soft as after cutting Brigalow and Gidgee.

FWIW, I found with cutting these harder type of wood that a slow steady chain speed is required, the wood seems to "glass up" with the faster chain speeds.

Cheers
Will

 

[MCW]

The different Box trees and redgums sure are hard to cut, but they are soft as after cutting Brigalow and Gidgee.

FWIW, I found with cutting these harder type of wood that a slow steady chain speed is required, the wood seems to "glass up" with the faster chain speeds.

Cheers
Will

I suppose it depends on the climate you're cutting in. I've never rated Redgum as being hard (although some have) but considering there is a heap of box species in a whole heap of climates it's hard to put your finger in just which one is the hardest. If anybody can find a wood with no embedded dirt/rocks that can physically wreck .404" semi chisel like this dead Box I cut up I DO NOT want to see it or even hear about it. Finding wood harder than that gear is when you start entering the realms of a timber with a higher hardness rating than the chain itself

 

[tdi-rick]

yall reacon the aussies will win, well i best think you boys come here to new zealand,

ive cut aussie hard wood rail way sleepers, they will kill a semi chisel chain after a few cuts and thats with changing the angles of the cutters.

[snip]

Eucs, particularly Box and Ironbark grown here on the mainland and particularly west of the divide will invariably have much closer growth rings compared to those on the coast, Tassie or the Shaky Isles. (They will have been terribly stressed at some point in their lives) This impacts considerably on toughness and density.

Then we have stuff like Mulga, Desert Oak and Gidgee that make most Eucs look like balsa.

That Ake you spoke of sounds like what Matt and Aaron describe cutting Mulga out where they are in the semi arid parts. Imagine what it'd cut like if it grew here on the mainland :msp_ohmy:

Big old White Box (E. Albens) has been the toughest stuff I've cut, and it's always had a termite chimney up the guts to keep my filing skills up to scratch :bang:
I never go bush without half a dozen loops.

I dropped an old dead Euc one day that was a beautiful salmon pink inside. I have no idea what it was, (E.Polyanthemos ?) it was dead clean, straight grained and hard as nails.
Half a dozen cuts in the 24" trunk and my semi chisel chain was blunt.