My cell phone rings. It’s Julian…
"Hey Julian, what's up?"
"Lenny, I got a big problem here!"
"What is it?"
"I'm trying to cut into this wood floor and the saw is smoking."
"Well that would be expected Julian. The floor was water damaged, so there's probably a lot of sideways pressure in the floor system. Start cutting cross-grain first and see if you can pry out a two or three foot section. Once you get into it, that should make it easier to cut the rest of it out."
"OK."
A few minutes later, Julian calls again…
"Hey Julien, is everything OK?"
"No, it's still smoking a lot. This wood is super hard!"
"Julian, it's just regular Brazilian cherry that had gotten wet. If you take the saw and just cut into it shallow and then go deeper and deeper in the same line, you should be OK."
"OK, I'll try that."
"OK, cool."
Moments later, ring ring…
"Julian, are you still having a problem cutting the floor?"
"Yeah, I think these saw blades are no good. It won't cut into the floor. It just keeps smoking!"
"I don't understand. There's no reason why you can't cut that wood, even if wet and under sideways pressure. Did you change the blades, maybe your blade is dull?"
"Yes twice, and still doing the same thing, smoking like crazy!"
I ponder for a moment…
"Are you using the worm-drive saw? Take a picture of the saw and send it to my phone."
"Yes, I'm using the worm-drive saw. I'll take a picture and send it now."
"Dude… You got the blade on backwards."
