# Sawing desert iron wood?



## vegas urban lumber (Oct 3, 2016)

i just purchased aprox 2 cords of DIW. i'll be picking it up in phoenix in the next 2 weeks roughly. my brother tells me he tried so saw the sample i brought back on our sawmill. "nothing but smoke" is there any way to cut the stuff readily? i suppose i may have to move up to carbide tipped band-saw blades? i have a 36" hud-son. can anyone recommend a good carbide tipped blade, supplier?

thx for the move to correct section. wasn't sure where it belonged

Reactions: Like 1


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## ClintW (Oct 4, 2016)

I believe there has been some thoughts on brands in the tool review section.
Kevin also reviewed his here:

http://woodbarter.com/threads/laguna-resaw-king-carbide-tipped-bandsaw-blade.26707/#post-341075


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## ripjack13 (Oct 4, 2016)

vegas urban lumber said:


> thx for the move to correct section. wasn't sure where it belonged



No problem....


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## barry richardson (Oct 4, 2016)

I dont know about mills, but I would think a carbide sawblade that size would be $$$. I have processed a lot of DIW. Used a chainsaw and bandsaw mostly, it's helll on gear. I have decided regular carbon blades are the most efficient, especially after I figured how to reshape the blades. The wood usually has a lot of grit in it in the bark and cracks, and of course the wood is very hard and high in silica. One way to save on some cutting is split the chunks with a wedge. There are always cracks down the middle and the brittle wood pops apart pretty easily. Good luck, let us know how it goes...

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 1 | Informative 1


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## vegas urban lumber (Oct 5, 2016)

thinking now of buying a carbide bandsaw blade for the big powermatic band saw we have will cost about $200, since most of the pieces are about bandsaw size already

Reactions: Like 1


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## justallan (Oct 9, 2016)

Have you tried 3 or 4 degree blades? I think I would try a couple cheaper blades before putting out big money that you may not have to.
Although I have never sawn DIW, something I would look at is the footage you can average with carbide blades versus your regular blades and do an overall price comparison. At $200 a blade, I could probably dig up a couple dozen el cheapo blades, IF you can find one that will work.
Just some random thoughts.


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