what is the hardest wood to mill

[Brushcutter]

Milled much more with a bandsaw than with a chainsaw.

 

Beech can go either way be rock hard or be easy going.

Oak seems always to be hard work.

Hornbeam was slow going and hard on the saw.

Teak that was very hard and blunted the saw quickly

Ash i've not had a problem with.

Larch if it's pinchy can be very hard work. Stripped a band of every tooth before!

Fir is nice and quick.

[Ian G 2]

Aye I have worked with larch on Steiner 28ft band saw before that shut down on the blade stop the saw dead it snapped a few blades too not fun when working alone mile from anyone.

It was called Japanese larch I think twisted like a *****

hope life will easy'er with the Alaskan mill with the lager cut

[se7enthdevil]

Years ago a firm I was working for was given a few blocks of wood to cut into planks for the customer, as soon as it hit the band saw it blunted the blade, we found out from the customer that it was African iron wood and was once used as blocks on the old sailing ships to stop the cargo shifting in rough sea,s. Totally useless information to the op, I know.

 

if it was dark red then that sounds like it could have been the ekki as its also known as iron wood cause it realy is rock hard and will have undoubtably been used as ballast too because it wont float.

[Maxwell]

bog oak

[Jesse]

Fossil wood: thumbup1:

[openspaceman]

if it was dark red then that sounds like it could have been the ekki as its also known as iron wood cause it realy is rock hard and will have undoubtably been used as ballast too because it wont float.

 

Some of the tropical woods, those known as mahogany possibly, deposit grains of silica (sand) as they dry and it comes out of solution. This makes them too abrasive to mill when dry so they are only milled from green.

[se7enthdevil]

the mahogany species are genraly a joy to cut but im sure you do get specimins that have silica in them. there are a few that are renound for having a silica content one of which is teak but the worst ones i know of are balau meranti and keruing, all of which are in the dipterocarpaceae and come from indonesian areas.

 

im sure most trees can have a higher silica content than normal as its all down to growing conditions and the mineral content of the soil.

 

i believe some of the most difficult ones to mill are in south america but there are hard woods all over the world.

[Idywool]

It's a well known fact that any wood can be very difficult to mill with a blunt chain...

[alex_w]

Found Holm oak to be very dense and hard to mill

[difflock]

Ah!

He thinks?

Teak:001_huh:

I cut and planed and routered 50 year salvaged Teak worktops from a school lab.

It was a proper bastard on the planer, perhaps in part to the 50 years worth of linseed oil dressing with ingrained debris therein.(I thought)

Perhaps due to the silica as well

Worth it in the long run though.

Now good for another 50:thumbup:( or 100? years)

PS

I had intended to mill a large straight stemmed but clearly visablly sprial grained Bog Fir, with the LM15 (if I ever get it)

About 500mm/550mm in diameter and perhaps 6 or 7m long.

Might need to re-think that plan.