Blade for cutting down a hardwood slab
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I have a customer who wants me to cut down a live edge slab or two. They’re thinking to get either walnut or ash either 2″ or 3″ thick and want it both ripped and cross cut. I’m planning to use a circular saw with a guide due to the size and weight. I’m not against sanding some but would like as clean a cut as possible. I love my Freud D0760A 60T thin kerf blade. Is this a reasonable blade if I take it slow? Any thoughts on how to pull this cut off the best?
Replies
2” to 3” thick walnut with a skilsaw? That must be the mother of all skilsaws you’ve got there, buddy. Personally, I would opt for cutting expensive hardwood of that thickness on a decent table saw with the type of blade you identified, to ensure adequate power and reduce unnecessary tool wear on your skilsaw. I know that a guy can create a jig for accurate cutting with a skilsaw (done it myself), but would I choose to do that, with this kind of job? Nope. Table saw with at least 1 1/2 Hp motor, preferably more, and a sharp, clean blade to start. Rigging an out-feed table is simple and safe, making handling the work more efficient, too. Good luck, let us know how it works out for you!
Most 7 1/4" blade skilsaws will cut nearly 2.75'' thick. If your slab was not much thicker than that you could snap a remaining 1/16'' or so off. Not ideal but doable. I've never used a 60 tooth skilsaw blade but If I were ripping a thick slab I'd try a coarser tooth blade. You can sand out tooth marks but not always burn marks. Cross cutting a 40 toother would be all I wanted too.
Cutting big heavy slabs that aren't flat or otherwise surfaced might as well be done with a circ saw and straightedge as you propose, it's an artisan material poorly suited to "precision milling." Not to disparage but to put in perspective.
I’ve cut a lot of wood slabs mainly for bar tops on commercial projects. I use my festool with a sharp ripping blade. If you have a worm drive skillsaw it will cut, they’re a beast of of saw. The main issue you will have (depending upon graining) is not the cutting itself, but the binding of the blade while cutting. If you have someone follow behind you and place shims in the cut to keep the pieces separated as you cut it will keep that from happening. My festool track saw has a riving knife, so binding isn’t an issue. Use a ripping saw blade with less teeth. More teeth for the cross cuts, but do not get fine finish blades with a lot of teeth, a lower tooth count is good for this as well. I follow mine with a handheld planer. When I cut mine, I try to use a blade that will cut quick and not worry so much about tooth marks. Cut beyond the cut line and plane/sand it to the line. It does help keep the blade cooler/cleaner if you can have someone ahead of you vac the sawdust away as you cut.
An 8" saw will probably do it just fine but cutting is just one part of the equation. The second part is cleaning up the edge which is going to have to be done. I'd use a plane to clean the edge up.
Just to follow up for prosperity..... I cut this with my circular saw with a new Diablo 24 tooth blade and it handled it well. I set the cut to half the thickness and cut it from both sides as my saw doesn't cut deep enough to do it in one pass. I did have misalignment in my cuts, but a few passes with my power hand planer trued everything up quickly. It really wasn't to big of an ordeal. While the table saw idea would have been nice I can't see how I would have done this with a 36" x 96" slab that weighed a few hundred pounds and had no straight edges when I started. See picture of the finished product (two slabs joined) and a desk I made from the edges I cut off.
That desk is impressive!
My scraps never turn out that good.