Hardest Timber you cut with your saw?

[mowoodchopper]

You pretty well owe me rep for that ... and i'm positive. get 2 or 3 days of that slow easy rain and they'll staple right in. if you have a hedge row thats thick enough you don't need a fence than you're just now getting them big enough never thin them until you cut the whole damn thing down

The old hedge row is the old days no maintenance fence. There are about no more though in this part of the country!

 

[caleath]

I have an osage in the back yard. Thing is huge, not looking forward to the day that thing has to come down.

 

[dh1984]

I've cut a lightning struck Red Oak as well, hard as a rock and a bear to split! I've cut railroad ties, nasty! Standing dead Pin Oak, downed Locust and Hickory, not Shag bark mind you, but nothing compares to seasoned Osage Orange! Nothing! Green with a sharp chain and if kept sharp, it's not bad, dried, yeah your going to be there for a while!

yea i had a friend tell me to cut a red oak that waswell seasoned and still standing some how.but when i got it cut up and about 2 chains later he tells me that it was hit by lighting about a year and a half ago.when he told me that i liked to have **** a ton of bricks and woped his butt too. but splitting wasn't so bad because he had a 28 ton logsplitter.

 

[indiansprings]

By far the hardest I've ever cut is seasoned hedge/bodark/osage orange.I only use worn chains for messing with it. Seasoned dog wood is also very hard.

 

[wendell]

I have no doubt that hedge and ironwood are tops in the US (and just wait until the Aussies wake up) but the hardest wood I have cut in the upper Midwest is standing dead red elm. A couple weeks ago I went from a big oak log to a small red elm. It took much longer to get through the elm.

 

[mowoodchopper]

you guys wont believe this but ! I agree on the hardwoods we have talked about but we cut alot of cottonwood around here and burn alot, it will surprise you how good it can be, but anyway when its down around 0 to 15 f for a week or two some times you would not believe how hard a cottonwood can be on a chain. The cotton wood I cut is dead standing and it is dry goes from the truck to the stove , but there must be just enough moisture in it to freeze because when its that cold it will dull a chain in a few minutes, not all of them but just every now and then you'll get a tree and about ten minutes and you look at a full chisel chain it'll have the edge rounded of and wont cut for crap!

 

[woodyman]

If anyone has cut at dusk, sparks can be seen regardless of the wood being cut. It's simply the moving parts of the bar, tip and chain,
John

Yep,I have told alot of people you get more sparks off the B&C then out the muffler.All I got around here is dead hard frozen red oak.

 

[jimbojango]

I've seen sparks off the bar and chain during daylight on hedge. I've cut several types of dead elms, nothing compared to hedge. never used a semi chisel chain on them, always full chisel... i still don't think you guys understand just how hard they are... they are DEAD... IN THE GROUND.. and are 4 inches diameter at most... and stay there for "at least a hundred years" there are fences on some of my farms that were put there in 1894.. before oklahoma was a state... and some in Kansas were put up in the teens because the guy that built them's dad made him help him when he was a kid. Never been repaired.. hedge is just as hard as it gets.. Cottonwood is good for cattle trailer boards though.. it gets hard after its dry, can't hardly get a nail in it

 

[mowoodchopper]

I've seen sparks off the bar and chain during daylight on hedge. I've cut several types of dead elms, nothing compared to hedge. never used a semi chisel chain on them, always full chisel... i still don't think you guys understand just how hard they are... they are DEAD... IN THE GROUND.. and are 4 inches diameter at most... and stay there for "at least a hundred years" there are fences on some of my farms that were put there in 1894.. before oklahoma was a state... and some in Kansas were put up in the teens because the guy that built them's dad made him help him when he was a kid. Never been repaired.. hedge is just as hard as it gets.. Cottonwood is good for cattle trailer boards though.. it gets hard after its dry, can't hardly get a nail in it

Yeah it is and it will surprise alot of people how hard dead cottonwood can be.

 

[sawinredneck]

I hate cutting green Red Elm tree's, just a nasty, sticky wet mess, but not that hard, unless it's frozen.
Can't say I've ever had Cottonweed get hard to cut, seems it's either soaking wet or punky when I get to it.

 

[derwoodii]

Stone motherless dead Red gum or Sugar gum Oz hardwoods make many US trees look soft

http://www.hardwood.timber.net.au/species/redgum.htm

A good read about hard woods here

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/plsept99.htm

 

[Oldsawnut]

Locust... Damn that was hard stuff...

 

[truckieL29]

Bodark - if that's the mustard yellow colored stuff, it's very hard. My cousin uses it in place of ebony for bridge plates in acoustic guitars.

that sounds like mulberry......................

 

[jimbojango]

that sounds like mulberry......................

Hedge is bright yellow.. mulberry is yellowish red w/ a white ring

 

[truckieL29]

Hedge is bright yellow.. mulberry is yellowish red w/ a white ring

the mulberry i just cut had a pink ring then it was mustard yellow (no mistaking it) and i have cut hedge apple, very hard indeed but dont consider it timber more of just a fence line tree etc...

also large diameter honeysuckle is HARD too

 

[banshee67]

osage orange , dead standing black locust

 

[paccity]

:

black locust is pretty rough on a chain

:agree2:

 

[paccity]

.
Can't say I've ever had Cottonweed get hard to cut, seems it's either soaking wet or punky when I get to it.[/QUOTE]

ya , and stinks like a horse stable.

 

[jimbojango]

there is no better firewood than hedge. its just more work that big oaks because its thorny and doesn't make wood real fast. BTU's are out of this world, burns green, burns seasoned, burns forever. Its the closest thing to coal. Can't see why you guys don't want to screw with it.

 

[banshee67]

those hedge/osage trees grow like #### around here, i wouldnt wana mess with them
all twisted, covered in branches every 6 inches, never very large in diameter, never any straight pieces, just a mess !