MIMF

Heat is what kills saw steel blades. Wet wood is sticky and will clog everything up in no time. Ideally you only want 3-5 teeth engaged in the wood at once so that the gullets are big enough to accommodate the wood that's being removed. Resaw band saws have really big teeth with huge gullets.
Start with dry wood and spray the blade with blade lube every few minutes to clean off any resin that's glommed on. I get much better life out of my thin kerf bands now that I clean them routinely.
http://www.bostik-us.com/markets/produc ... oodworking
You might also consider getting your blades from a cheaper source like Spectrum supply: http://www.spectrumsupply.com/kerfmaste ... total.aspx

Hey David,

Ideally you only want 3-5 teeth engaged in the wood at once so that the gullets are big enough to accommodate the wood that's being removed

For this wood, which is 11-1/4" wide, to have only 5 teeth in contact, they would have to be 2" apart!!
Talk about your skip-tooth blade!!

I really did not have an opportunity to

Start with dry wood

because this is 3" thick walnut. I'd like to build with this wood before the next ice-age.

You can resaw wet walnut but it MUST be stickered and stacked, and you will lose some wood in the thickness sanding process once it has dried. This will allow you to use the wood sooner by several years but you will lose more to waste than if the billet is dried first.

Nice video, Chuck. I had never thought of your intermediate step of surfacing with a drum sander before taking the next slice. That's really good idea to have a nice flat surface riding against the fence. The fence idea is good too, especially the ability to adjust it. I have a Kreg fence system with a resaw attachment and your solution looks like it works similarly without the expense.

When I was working construction back in the '80s in Florida, we built decks when cabinetwork was hard to get. Similar economy back then, I think. A lot of the wood was treated yellow pine and it was both sopping wet, sap filled and heavy. Very hard to cut since it would grab your saw blades and kickback from time to time. We used carbide tipped blades but started buying cheap ones since they went dull so fast. I'm sure things have improved. So, I think wet wood does a couple of things to dull blades. First, it "swells" back onto the blade as you cut so a kerf wider than the blade may help. Second, crud builds up as you say and you aren't cutting with the tips of the teeth. These produce heat and may be why blades in wet wood fail.

A lot of the guys here in Mississippi turn bowls and cut the blanks from wet wood. Apparently, some make a special wet wood blade. American woodworker has an online article that recommends a blade from Timberwolf. I haven't bought one yet but here's their article.

http://americanwoodworker.com/blogs/too ... lades.aspx

Great article, Warren, thanks for the link! I knew that it is generally a better idea to stay under 3/4" width blades on 14" saws (for reasons of tension, vibration, and blade fatigue), but I was not aware that this is based on the. 025" thickness rule they speak of. This information alone totally changes my bandsaw blade buying practices.

You can resaw wet walnut but it MUST be stickered and stacked

Absolutely Michael! In the video I show the stack of slices stickered on a stable platform with another board and weight on top of it.
The ends are sealed and they are constrained while they dry.

I use the "nail in kerf" method of resawing and make deep kerfs on the tablesaw to help along an underpowered bandsaw. To help clear the sawdust I use a couple of sticker sticks to elevate the wood off the tabletop and vacuum the dust away.

Chuck Tweedy wrote:Hey David,

Ideally you only want 3-5 teeth engaged in the wood at once so that the gullets are big enough to accommodate the wood that's being removed

For this wood, which is 11-1/4" wide, to have only 5 teeth in contact, they would have to be 2" apart!!
Talk about your skip-tooth blade!!

I really did not have an opportunity to

Start with dry wood

because this is 3" thick walnut. I'd like to build with this wood before the next ice-age.

You could have made it a little easier on yourself by doing a little trimming, like make the first resaw cut between the backs & sides. Then you could trim the backs down to 9" wide and get a neck blank, and trim the sides in half so you're only resawing 5-1/2" instead of 11". It is more resaw cuts, but only the first one needs to be the full 11-1/4" depth. I've found that once I get beyond about 9", I start to loose more material sanding out the saw marks. I can get better yield doing this, especially on the sides. It may be as much as 1/16" difference in the cleanup required between an 11" resaw depth and a 5" depth. Your saw is better than mine, so these observations my be of no consequence to you.

Hi Chuck,

Excellent video.

I've used the wood slicer blades and found them to dull very quickly. I think the tooth count is too high
for the thickness of the lumber we need. You can buy 2 tpi blades and they should run cooler for you. I'd also use a lubricant on he blade, especially for green wood.

Here's a general question: has anyone ever ground some of the teeth off of a blade to handle this job? I've done it once on a semi-dull blade and it did improve performance. Of course it takes time, but I'd consider it for this thickness, even with a 2 point blade.

Thanks Tom.
True the Woodslicer works well for smaller jobs. I've used them very successfully for narrower wood.
Next time I attempt this type of re-sawing I will have to get a better blade - no doubt.

Here is a question, you had out line of the guitar body why not shorten the length? the board was much longer than the body was there another project you were trying to get out of this batch of wood?

I have limited resaw experience, but I alway thought the shortest length is always easiest to control.

The board was much longer than the body was there another project you were trying to get out of this batch of wood?

Yes, guitar sides