Resawing Rosewood

[Roger Feeley]

I tried resawing a 4" piece of Rosewood last night and I got it done but the blade got really gummy. I was using a 1" Timberwolf resaw blade. I also noticed a lot of smoke coming off the wood but no burning.

I know that Rosewood is on the oily side. Could that be where the smoke was coming from? Also, what can I do to avoid the crud that built up on the blade?

Should I invest in a Resaw King?

[Peter Quinn]

What type of rosewood? They are all very hard and tough on tooling. Sure it was smoke and not very fine sawdust/powder? I've seen that on morado, not a true rosewood but similarly hard. If not carbide maybe bimetal if this is a regular thing.

[Chris Fournier]

You can purchase wax for your blade and this will help quite a bit. The wax comes in a tube that looks like a grease gun refill. check a local tooling supplier. I buy from a company called CRL. Remember to feed the rose wood as fast as the blade will cut.

[Damon Stathatos]

I resaw cocobolo on a regular basis. If I'm getting smoke at all, it is usually coupled with a barrel cut in which the resulting pieces have the profile of a banana. If I continue with more cuts, in addition to the barreling I begin to get crazing or burnishing as well, sometimes even sparking from within the cut. No amount of tensioning helps (me) at this point and the only fix is to change to a freshly sharpened blade, even though the 'old' blade passes the fingernail test. I believe the cause of this type of situation is that one side of the blade has become appreciably duller than the other.

I do not get unusual pitch buildup so much with cocobolo. I do however get it 'like crazy' with spanish cedar, which is surprising to me considering how soft the cedar is compared to the cocobolo (softer but more resinous, I guess). I believe the pitch buildup accelerates the dulling process as well by changing the physics of the cut. Sometimes I'm forced to clean the blade after every cut, which becomes a real PITA (blade is 234") until I finally break down and change the blade.

My suggestion is to try a fresh blade if you have one to see if that helps.

[Erik Loza]

I'm with Peter and Damon on this: Got reaction is a dull blade. Or at least, one not as sharp/new as it should be. Even if the wood is really oily, you still should never be pushing it hard enough to burn anything. Roger, have you tried a carbide blade on your rosewood? Don't believe I've ever personally cut any rosewood before, but have done pretty much every other tropical hardwood out there and can tell you that it will be a night-and-day difference, going from a carbon steel blade to a true carbide blade. A Lenox Tri-Master or Woodmaster CT would be my choice. Pricey but worth it if you work with tropical hardwoods on any consistent basis. Just my 2-cents and best of luck with it.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Myk Rian]

What size saw is it?

[Roger Feeley]

Sorry, it's the 18" Rikon.

[jim vancampen]

I haven't had much luck with timber wolf blades on extra hard stuff. A standard kerf resaw blade has always worked better for me.

[glenn bradley]

Damon speaks from long experience. I speak from not near as long but, agree that the blade is too dull for the task at hand. Timberwolf and Woodslicers are my favored blades but, you must realize that these relatively inexpensive blades dull faster than more robust metals. The trick to enjoying your silicon steel, bi-metals, etc. is to know when their optimum life is over and then set them aside for a few rough jobs and after that, let them go.