Wood Hardness list?

[Trent]

Sorry if this has been covered. I did a search, but may be using the wrong terms. I talked to Wood-mizer about blades (sales rep was very informative), he saied harder woods should be cut with less hook angle. He spoke of woods harder than...., woods softer than...Is there a list of woods with harness ratings? I have some poplar (soft I think), and some locust (hard?) to cut up. Being new, my fear is having some issue, and not having ANY idea what is wrong. Hopefully, I won't have too big an audience. Anyway, I've got some 9 and some 10 deg. blades on order.

[Kansas]

Hook angle is important, but unless your doing some unusual cutting applications I wouldnt worry too much about varying from the 9-10 degree hook angle. We find 10 degrees usually works well on everything from cottonwood, which would be similar to poplar, to oak, locust, ash, etc. Frozen logs require less of a hook angle, along with very dry hardwood logs, but even then we never have had much luck dropping below 8. You should be fine with the blades you have, providing the logs are fairly fresh.

[Tom]

I agree.  Don't complicate your learning curve.  Standard 10 degree blades will do a good job on most all woods.  Experience will have you experimenting soon enough.

You're right Poplar is soft and Locust is hard.  But, you will also find that some pines are soft and some are hard.  White pine is a soft one if you discount the knots.  Long Leaf can be as hard as red oak.

If you want a piece of paper to study, go to the knowledge base and look for "The Wood Handbook" under one of the sawing topics.

[ely]

i use the standard 10 degree hook angle on everything i have, and use it on all woods i saw. does well for me, but then i am no professional either.

[beenthere]

For a specific table to look at, which has many properties listed for most species, go to

Chapter 4, Wood Handbook

and Table 4 - 3b for the information in inch-pounds, etc. (Table 4- 3a for metric units).  Hardness is in the far right column and gives a good relative number to compare different woods. Specific gravity is also given in another column and can be used much the same way.

[footer]

I agree with the above. The 9 & 10 should work fine. If you cut a lot of white pine or such you might ty a 13.
You can do a google search for "Janka Hardness test" or "Janka Hardness scale" and you will find the comparisons on how hard each wood is. It is basically a test on how resistant the wood is to denting. It might or might not make any difference with how hard or easy it is to saw.

[urbanlumberinc]

If it's Black Locust you'll be amazed at how hard the wood is, Honeylocust is equally amazing in hardness, but not quite as neat to look at (IMHO)

[footer]

If it's Black Locust you'll be amazed at how hard the wood is, Honeylocust is equally amazing in hardness, but not quite as neat to look at (IMHO)

I don't know about that, as I havent yet cut any black locust yet but I do have a pile of them. Honey Locust is one beutiful wood.