sawing teak

[Ken Smith]

What am I doing wrong? Every time I cut a length of teak on my circular-saw after 2ft. the blade starts smoking, I've fitted a new blade on two occasions to no avail

 

[9fingers]

Have you got the correct size riving knife to match the blade kerf? sounds like the cut is closing and pinching the blade.
I'm assuming you have a rip blade and enough horsepower to keep the blade speed up?
Teak is pretty abrasive and so you will need a carbide tipped blade.

Bob

 

[Ironballs]

Teak is hard going, power and sharpness are what's needed, like Bob says

 

[Paul.J]

I think Teak is known for dulling cutters pretty quickly because of the resin/oil in the wood :?

 

[Ironballs]

It's also a very heavy/dense wood and I think it also has calcium deposits in it - which really blunt your tools

 

[woodbloke]

TCT saw blades are needed for teak...I assume yours is? If it's smoking after a 2' cut then the blade is blunt and whatever you do, never put teak thru' a p/t!! Handplaning only and you'll need to resharpen your plane blades about every three minutes with constant use...have fun and welcome to the forum - Rob

 

[SammyQ]

Beg to disagree, my Nutool(!) lunchbox planer regularly surfaces and thicknesses 100 year old teak (ex lab benches). Shallow cuts and lots of 'em = nice surfaces. Yes, tough on blades, but my HSS ones do resharpen fairly easily.
Dust is a far worse problem. Outside working is an absolute must.

Sam

 

[OPJ]

If your planer/thicknesser will accept TCT blades (knives) then you could of course go down that route. While they do last a lot longer, you can't resharpen them. HSS blades tend to give a better finish (when sharp).

 

[Racers]

Hi,

Sounds like its pinching the blade you might have to stop push a wedge in the kerf and continue. I have just had to do this on 10 planks of birch they warped so much it split the final 2 inches on lots of the planks.

Pete

 

[woodbloke]

Beg to disagree, my Nutool(!) lunchbox planer regularly surfaces and thicknesses 100 year old teak (ex lab benches). Shallow cuts and lots of 'em = nice surfaces. Yes, tough on blades, but my HSS ones do resharpen fairly easily.
Dust is a far worse problem. Outside working is an absolute must.

Sam

When I was at college in the 70's teak was very much in vogue. It was the only material that the machine shop refused to plane, the student just collected a big parcel of the stuff and then it all had to be planed by hand. But then again, if sharpening planer blades is your thing...rock on! Fwiw, I was reliably informed that several woodworking business went to the wall in the 70's 'cos d'management didn't take into account the down time for sharpening tooling when using teak. Teak dust isn't too bad, it's iroko that's the shocker...this was also used for lab benches - Rob

 

[JonnyD]

If your planer/thicknesser will accept TCT blades (knives) then you could of course go down that route. While they do last a lot longer, you can't resharpen them. HSS blades tend to give a better finish (when sharp).

Just want to point out that TCT knives can be sharpened although it is more expensive at my saw doctors to sharpen TCT over HSS.

jon

 

[SammyQ]

Rob, I bow to your more extensive experience. I don't process anything like the volume a 'pro' workshop would and therefore don't run into the same problems.

Sam

 

[Ken Smith]

Hi from deepest France,
thank you one and all for your replies my teak isn't as exotic as Sam's lab-desks it was just a plain old greenhouse frame, but it was free. Since writing I have discovered that the old log-saw (3-phase) which was abandoned along with the teak rips it down a treat, sharpening the blade occasionally then it goes through my Geetech P/T also sharpening the knives occasionally finished off with a little sanding then oiling, the loungers are coming on a treat.
Cheers from France

 

[Derek Willis.]

In one of my local joinery shops, they will not put teak through their best P/T because of the ultimate damage caused to the knives, they keep a very old one for this purpose only.
Derek.