Bandsaw Resawing African Blackwood, How Thin Can I Go?

[Jim Build]

Hello Everyone,

I have some 12" wide 4/4 s4s African blackwood that I want to resaw into thin 12" wide slices. I have access to a 20" Laguna 5hp bandsaw with a .032" kerf 1.25" 3 tpi carbide tip blade. I've resawn ebony on it, but only around 6" wide.

How do you work with this tough wood when resawing?

How thin of slices could be sawn?

I've done a lot of wide domestic hardwoods, but not a lot of wider really tough woods.

Thanks, Jim

[Ben Abate]

Jim
I've resawn plenty of wide woods. Never Blackwood though. Depending on the condition of that particular board I would think you could go down pretty thin. Slow, steady and with the use of a tall fence and possibly a feather board about mid way. I'm sure you are aware of these things since you have resawn before. I use a 24" Laguna with a 1" carbide 3 tooth blade on just about everything when resawing. You might want to clean the blade prior to starting this. I usually will take off the blade periodically especially when I have something important to resaw

[Jim Build]

Thanks Ben,

The wood is very flat and straight, some visible interesting grain/color, no burls or knots, with 1-1.5" sapwood on one edge. Slow and steady.

Ideas on what thickness to try on the first cut?

[John TenEyck]

I've never worked with that wood, but I've sawn lots of others into 10 - 12" wide veneers. I normally make 1/16" finished veneer, so I saw at about 0.090", but I've sawn some at 0.050" for 1/32" finished veneer. I have used both 3 tpi bimetal and 1.3 tpi carbide blades. The finish is actually better with the 1.3 tpi carbide blade.

John

[Wade Lippman]

I have no idea, but would encourage you to practice on some cheap wood first.

[Jim Build]

John, that's good to know that I can possibly cut them that thin, and about the blade. Thanks

Wade, the toughest wide boards I've resawn are hard maple and hickory, but no where as hard as this wood. I'd like to practice with some cheaper very hard wide boards, but I don't really know what that would be. Osage orange?

What would be a good cheap hardwood to practice with before I cut/ruin this wood? Thanks

[Andrew Hughes]

I wonder how fast that veneer will turn into a potato chip after its cut.I am interested in what your plan is to keep it flat so it useable.
Good luck sounds like a great challenge.

[Van Huskey]

I wonder how fast that veneer will turn into a potato chip after its cut.I am interested in what your plan is to keep it flat so it useable.
Good luck sounds like a great challenge.

If you go down to 1/32nd, which is no problem with a carbide blade tensioned correctly, you just treat it like a commercial veneer in terms of flattening it. 1/32nd if not much thicker than a commercial veneer.

When trying to cut for a 1/32nd finished veneer it is important the saw is tuned very well. A small amount of barrelling or unaccounted for drift will ruin a sheet. Nothing cheap is going to approximate cutting the blackwood correctly BUT if you screw up a cheap much softer wood you KNOW the blackwood is going to be trouble.

[Andrew Hughes]

I have do doubt his saw will cut a very thin veneer.No one can really predict how the wood will behave.

Aj

[Van Huskey]

I have do doubt his saw will cut a very thin veneer.No one can really predict how the wood will behave.

Aj

My point is that you just treat it like a commercial veneer with "softener" and drying under weight. If you work with commercial raw veneer much you know it does all manner of funky things. Really, thin shop cut veneer is basically the same animal, it will do all sorts of weird stuff but it is thin enough to "wet" and dry back into shape, thicker shop cut veneer is much more trouble if it goes wonky, it is one of the reasons I cut shop veneer as thin as possible.

[Tom Trees]

Theirs a guy on the luthiers forums, goes by the name Herr Dalbergia...
He sells tonewoods i think ..
Might be worth seeing his setup ..
Copied from the anzlf ...
https://picasaweb.google.com/1157931855 ... redirect=1

https://picasaweb.google.com/115793185519493121307

He has a lot of bandsaw resaw pics, but you might need to create an account to view ?
He has a smaller Italian saw too he uses ..think its a 24"
Check his setup out
Have fun

[Frank Pratt]

Just spitballing here... See if you can scrounge some ipe scraps from a local deck builder to use for practice. It's pretty close to blackwood in hardness.

[Jim Build]

Andrew, Van, Tom, Frank, thanks!

Good points on proper setup, Van. Whoa, 1/32" is thinner than I imagined with this wood without serious equipment.

Andrew, I'll probably sandwich the pieces between large slabs of marble for awhile. Has worked in the past.

Tom, good links with some amazing wood and setup.

Frank, ipe is cheap around here and lots of it. I always forget about it since I think of it as a deck wood, which it's great at. I've sawn a lot, but never for fine work. I'll get some 2x12s for the resaw lessons.