any tips for cutting green heart?

[Graham w]

a lad i know along the road bought a pier made from enormous chunks of green heart, sand and shellfish included, wants me to size it down to more useful sizes.

 

how would you cut old green heart? he says its nasty stuff and no other sawmill will entertain him

 

thanks

[agrimog]

the usual trick for cutting old greenheart.........get some other fool to do it.....unless you've got kit set up for cutting metal, its going to go through blades quicker than prunes through an OAP

[Mike Dempsey]

I have cut up corsican pine which grew near a beach. It was so full of sand we had to resharpen after a couple of 8' planks. Combine the sand and metal with greenheart's toughness and you have one very expensive and slow job. The only way to do it is to charge by the hour and get him to supply the chains. By the end of the job he will wish that he hadnt bought the pier.

[wisewood]

What about getting some tungsten tipped chain?

I did some work few years back on a railway bridge restoration and the firm who did the bridge construction sware by it. The timber wasn't greenheart but some tropical wood hard as stone. Only problem is it would be standard tooth profile rather than 10° milling profile.

[gobbypunk]

Hi speek to Rob D on hear I know he milled some with his alaskan as I saw some planks when I did a milling course with him , lovley colour , I have some just havent got round to milling it yet I did cut a small slice with my carving saw and it wasnt that bad came up like glass with the sander , I would steam clean it and metal detect a few new chains and give it a go some pics would be cool if you do it

Good luck Mark

[gobbypunk]

Hi just had a thaught some people chainsaw mill with a full chiesil chain and you can get that in csrbide tip so maybe that would be a way to go just a thaught

Cheers Mark

[se7enthdevil]

if you are using a band mill then quintuple the price of a normal job and if you only have a chainsaw then get a band mill...

 

in suranim they often wrap the tree in a chain after it comes out the back of the blade as they have been known to explode but this is rare.

 

 

someone on here milled a load of greenheart for his brothers fence and there was alot of work involved...

 

page 10 of this thread.

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/alaskan-mill/9883-pics-your-milled-products-10.html

[Big J]

Don't bother.

 

Another Scottish sawmiller cut a whole load of greenheart from pier pilings and he got about 2 cuts per band.

[Johnpl315]

I would just pressure wash it so it looks cleaner/tidier and try and find a market for it as is. Must be people who would want it for bridges, bank revetments and the like.

[Copford sawmill sussex]

We must be lucky but never had a real problem cutting green heart? We do change the blades a bit but they cut it lovely.

Also the beams we are re sawing are only usually 4-5' 12x12's but even still not had a problem so far.

Ekki though is tough as nails and on a 12" face we change the blade every few meters!!