Quote Originally Posted by OneLegJohn View Post
You are the second person to tell me don't worry about lube for hardwoods. I really appreciate the feedback. I was going to make a rack like Sandy from Sawing with Sandy YouTube channel.

And yes, I can see the similarity and comparisons.

I'm having fun making videos. It is a lot of work! But I'm hoping we can grow the audience to better promote the maple industry.
It took me a while to recognize it, because it was not one of those things made clear by any of all the other sawyers out there or saw manufactures such as "Woodmizer".

Water being dropped on a sawmill blade pre cut does not serve the purpose of a "lube" or lubricant. It is a solvent or dilutant and only helps facilitate the clean cut by keeping pitch
( which generates tremendous blade friction ) from building up on the blade by diluting it or solving it. A negative side effect is that the additional water creates more friction for the blade. It is a trade off that benefits the cut however when wood still has moist sugars and pitch still infused in the cellulose of the stumpage.

The dryer and less pitch in stumpage ( the two are infused together in green stumpage ) the more you want to keep additional water off the blade when cutting it. Across all types of stumpage. Mark my word on this. The dryer and less pitch lumber has in it the more you want to keep additional "water" / "lube" off and out of the cut.

Dry logs with dried up pitch will cut like butter on a band mill. If you add water to the blade in this scenario you will make the blade want to grip the wood more, just like one needs to lick their dry hands when trying to swing a cold dry maul handle in the fall so that their hands grip the "wood" handle better.

Sometimes sawyers add Pine-Sol to the water to make it a more effective dilutant.

Hot water works better for the purpose of "dilution" too. That has been my approach and use it as needed.

Lubricating the blade in band saw milling is an inappropriate term. There is no need or purpose for it.