Need your advice - bandsaw or table saw for ebony resawing

[Georg Zudoff]

Hello Dears,

Usually I read only Neander section but now the question is beyond the hand skills.

I've got a few boards of ebony. So I need to resaw these boards (thick - 52 mm, length - near 1 meter and width - 0,3 meter) into small cubes and bricks (40x40x40 mm or 40x50x80 mm).

I've triyed to resaw by hand saws - Japan cataba but it takes a lot of time.

I suppose that with proper equipment it will be not so better and clean but more faster.

So the main thing for me is the right choice or equipment, because I'm not 'machine sawdust maker' and up to this time worked only by hand tools (saws, planes etc.).

Which will be better - the portable table saw, probably equipped with 'thin blades'

or

bandsaw?

And last, my apologiesies for language - English is not my native language.

Thank you,

Georg.

[Matt Day]

It sounds to me like a table saw would be the best bet, but there are two concerns in my mind. 1, it sounds like you want to save material by using a thinn kerf blade. 2, pushing 2" (52mm) ebony through a portable table saw might be tough on the saw.

A bandsaw would work for all your cuts, but would leave you with more clean up of the cut surface.

If it were me I'd cut long strips on the BS, clean up the cut on the Planer, then crosscut to final dimension on the TS.

You have very good English by the way, I'm sure it's much better than we'd speak your native language!

[glenn bradley]

Tablesaw can give you "finished" accuracy right off the machine but the bandsaw will have a narrower kerf.

[Chris Padilla]

I vote for bandsaw for sure. Properly set up with a good blade, they are the tool for resawing. A table saw's kerf is too wide and a thin blade might wobble in ebony.

[Kent A Bathurst]

If it were me I'd cut long strips on the BS, clean up the cut on the Planer, then crosscut to final dimension on the TS.

You have very good English by the way, I'm sure it's much better than we'd speak your native language!

I agree - long strips on the bandsaw, planer for cleanup [or a hand plane], and table saw for cross cuts.

I also think your English is just fine.

[Floyd Mah]

Try using a metal cutting saw, like a hacksaw. I've used a metal-cutting bandsaw to cut ebony. It works very well because the wood is somewhat brittle and is easily cut by the fine teeth of the bandsaw (16-18 pitch). A hacksaw is a bit hard to control, but for smaller pieces, it may be the right tool.

[Al Weber]

The bandsaw is the preferable way as ebony tends to be very brittle and unless the table saw blade is perfectly sharp you are likely to have problems. Plus you lose less material with the smaller kerf of the bandsaw. Whether you hand plane it smooth or use a joiner/planer, make sure the tooling is sharp.

[Michael O'Sullivan]

Hello Dears,

Usually I read only Neander section but now the question is beyond the hand skills.

I've got a few boards of ebony. So I need to resaw these boards (thick - 52 mm, length - near 1 meter and width - 0,3 meter) into small cubes and bricks (40x40x40 mm or 40x50x80 mm).

I've triyed to resaw by hand saws - Japan cataba but it takes a lot of time.

I suppose that with proper equipment it will be not so better and clean but more faster.

So the main thing for me is the right choice or equipment, because I'm not 'machine sawdust maker' and up to this time worked only by hand tools (saws, planes etc.).

Which will be better - the portable table saw, probably equipped with 'thin blades'

or

bandsaw?

And last, my apologiesies for language - English is not my native language.

Thank you,

Georg.

Personally, I would buy a bunch of ebony scraps and cut them up instead. Why would you want to cut up a board that probably costs well over $1,000 into little pieces?

[Georg Zudoff]

Personally, I would buy a bunch of ebony scraps and cut them up instead. Why would you want to cut up a board that probably costs well over $1,000 into little pieces?

Hello Mark,

Only because this was a gift and I took this ebony at no cost.

Georg.

[Georg Zudoff]

Thank you very much got yours advices. So, I will look for not expensive bandsaw But with the max blade width near 20 mm. Despite it will be not a little but it will be better then small ones.

Regards,

Georg.