Cutting Wood Fast Vs Slow: Which Way Is Better or Worse?

While cutting any kind of wood the most important thing is to maintain the speed as without it there are high chances that you will burn or crack the workpiece. But, how fast or slow can you go while cutting the wood? Let’s explore this in this article.

It is recommended to go slow (not too slow) while cutting the wood. Basically, the speed should be enough to allow the blade’s gullet to effectively remove the sawdust. Cutting too slowly can lead to increased friction and burn marks. So, It’s crucial to maintain a steady speed to avoid damaging the material.

So, without further delay, we’ll dive into the article to help you determine the speed, for some cases, you will need to increase the speed, and for others, you will have to do the opposite. 

Should You Cut Wood Fast or Slow? 

Every saw blade basically has two operations, cutting the wood, and removing the particles (saw-dust) by scooping it away. The gullet (deep part) of the blade is actually responsible for removing the particles away for smoother cuts. 

So, when your cutting speed is too fast for the gullet to get rid of the cut-down particle, it will accumulate sawdust and increase friction. As a result, the wood piece may get damaged or you may face kickbacks, and fail to get neat cuts

Want to Know how to avoid kickbacks? Read these:

Kickbacks In a Table Saw – 10 Reasons & Fixes + Prevention
Kickback In Circular Saws – Reasons & How to Prevent?

So, what we recommend is to let the blade handle the speed, and at your end not push too fast and go with the flow. Just trust the blade!

While slow speed is best for getting neat cuts, it can ruin your workpiece if you go too slow. You see when you go too slowly, more heat will produce for a long time (slow speed = more time cutting). So, it may end up with blade or workpiece damage, such as burn marks, etc. 

If you have to make fewer cuts, and your project does not involve too much cutting, then going too slow is still tolerable. But, we’ve noticed that the workpiece and blade get affected negatively when the speed is too slow. 

So, the speed should be in the middle of very slow to fast. 

Apart from these two basic factors, there are several other factors you should consider while determining the speed of your cutting operations.

Cutting Speed Depends on the Wood Type

Now that you’re well aware that the best practice is to go slow. Well, that’s true generally. But, there is more to it when it comes to cutting different species or types of wood. 

Generally, we have two types of wood, one is harder with dense wood content, and the softer with less dense wood content and less Janka hardness. 

The harder wood provides more friction to the blade as compared to softwood, and if we go slow on harder wood, there are chances of blade damage and burn marks. So, for harder wood, we usually go a little bit faster as compared to softer wood. 

In softer wood, the wood cells are loosely packed and do require a lot of effort from the blade, so we use a blade with high teeth count and slower speed as compared to harder wood. 

We’ve covered a separate article on cutting hardwood and softwood; you should check this one to understand it better.

Cutting Speed Depends on the Moisture Content 

The same principle goes with wood with a high moisture count. Actually, wood with high moisture content has less density (as the water content is higher than wood content), so you should cut this type of wood slowly, as there is a chance that the wood piece will break. 

If you want to learn more about cutting wood with high moisture content, you should check this article: Wet Wood vs. Dry Wood: Which is Harder and Better to Cut? 

We usually don’t recommend cutting wood with high moisture content, so in this regard, the best practice is to dry the wood, and then use it in woodworking projects. 

Cutting Speed On Cutting With or Against Grain

Cutting with the grain means cutting the length from the lumber in the direction of the grain. Basically, it means cutting in the direction of the growth of the tree i.e. vertical. 

While cutting with the grain, you’re actually ripping the wood apart, which is easier than cutting against the grain (horizontal), as you have to cut through the packed cells of the wood. 

So, in ripping the wood, the speed is usually higher than cross-cutting the wood. 

Saw Speed Depends on The TPI of the Blade

Most people find it tempting to buy a blade with them thinking it will make the cuts neat and nice. However, it is not always the true idea, because for ripping the wood, these blades won’t work. 

Choosing the right blade according to your task is important because fewer teeth work faster and have aggressive cuts while a lot of teeth do work but slowly. However, they also have less chipping and blowout. 

We have already discussed a little about the teeth of the blades and why they matter. To make it more understandable we can if you have a blade with teeth that is per inch in a blade, the blade will give nice and neat results. However, it works extremely slowly because it provides neatness. 

That’s the reason cross-cut high TPI blades are used (as they provide slower plus neat cuts). 

Speed Depends on the Thickness of the Wood

Another important factor to consider is the wood size which means mostly the thickness of the wood. You can also consider it like the depth of the cut you are going for. 

Choosing whether to go slow or fast depends on the thickness of the wood and also on the project you are cutting the wood. 

• If the wood is for framing walls then it is best to go fast but with a circular saw. 
• If you are going for ripping then it is best to go slowly: it is more like you have no other choice because it will kick back at fast speed. You can do it on a table saw. 

Basically, the important thing is to have a method, according to which you will perform your tasks. Just like framing, it is best to cut walls, windows, and ceilings first before actually installing them. 

Cutting Speed Depends on the RPM of Blade

For saws having a feature of setting different RPMs, the speed differs accordingly. When the speed of the saw blade is high, that means it will cut fast, and requires you to feed the wood fast. 

For example, if the RPM of the blade is high, and you are still pushing slowly, it will again create more friction, and ruin your project. So, the best practice is to increase your speed with the speed of the blade. 

We’d recommend setting the speed of your saw blade according to the factors we’ve mentioned above. Again, the rule is simple: Not too fast, Not too Slow! 

Let’s sum up these factors in a table.

Factors	Recommended Cutting
Wood Type	Hardwood: a little faster than softwood. Softwood: slower speed with high teeth count.
Moisture Content	High moisture content wood: cut slowly to avoid breakage.
Cutting With or Against Grain	Cutting with the grain: higher speed than cross-cutting.
TPI (Teeth Per Inch) of the Blade	Fewer teeth: faster, aggressive cuts. More teeth: slower, neater cuts.
Thickness of the Wood	Framing walls: fast speed. Ripping: slow speed to prevent kickback.
RPM (Revolutions Per Minute) of the Blade	Adjust speed according to blade RPM, not too fast or too slow.

The above table is based on what we do and recommend to our woodworking fellows. These factors and recommendations are generic and may change based on the type of wood and your project requirements.

What Happens When You Cut the Wood Too Slowly?

While cutting your wood slowly is always better, as it will give you neat cuts. But, if you’re going too slow, it may cause your workpiece to get burn marks.

When you’re cutting wood using any type of blade, friction will produce, and when you go too slow, the friction increases even more.

If you are going slow in the wrong situation most probably you will ruin the project (burn marks), your saw, or the blade of the saw. In some cases, the blades catch fire due to friction too. 

How to know if you are going too fast? If you are going too fast you will see a smooth coming but most commonly the blade starts binding and gets slow. Sometimes, the smoke will come out of your workpiece or saw blade. 

Why Does a Saw Blade Burns the Wood?

When the blades of the saw spin it creates friction. So what happens is that if you are going too slowly or fast it means the friction is increased and it will end up burning the cuts of the wood. 

You can get an idea when it is time to stop working with the blade by the sound of the saw. If the sound gets slow it means you have passed the working limit of your blade/saw. Why? Because the blade’s sound tells the workings. 

Another tip to know if you are going too slow is when the burn marks start to appear on the wood. It can also mean you have a blunt blade.