Spruce and more spruce. Help me learn!

[Ianab]

Is there more than one species of spruce.?

Yup. Wikipedia lists 35 different species.

So the Sitka Spruce from the PNW is different from the Norway Spruce that Jesper has in Norway. Both are useful timber trees, just different. And folks from other places? Who  knows.

Spruce I have down in the back garden is Picea smithiana from the Himalayas. No idea how that saws, but it's a cool tree.

[Remle]

I use 1¼x55x7° and give it some, cuts good ;D

Ya gotta keep in mind, the original poster only has 9.5 hp with an extremely narrow band paired with a centrifugal clutch. 

He doesn't have enough motor to efficiently pull a 7 deg. blade and get a consistent feedrate. 

Running a 4 deg blade will help tremendously in both areas.

IMHO he does not have the torque curve/power to pull the 4 deg. blade and would be better off with the 7 deg.

[Kbeitz]

I was told that it take less hp to pull a 4 deg blade.

[Chuck White]

To get the best quality lumber, I've used 8° & 10° 1¼"x .045" Wood-Mizer Double Hard blades with .025-.030 set and cut my feed speed down some.

[starmac]

I have been around at least 5 different species of spruce.
In the Alaska interior, we have white spruce, and black spruce. The black spruce is basically junk.
In the southeast we have sitke spruce, known for it's straight grain.
In New Mexico we had what we called blue spruce, probably has another name.
We also had englemen spruce, probably not spelled right.

[Garys Mill]

im from nipawin sask also saw mainly spruce,had a hell of time getting straight lumber. i own a tk 2200 mill and it sawed horrible finally got some answers from a fella in idaho and started winter sawing with woodmizer 1.5 inch blades 7 degree hook and set to 27-30 also use diesel for lube or cleaning.i now saw perfect lumber exept for the odd tree with super huge knots that are dryed for a few yrs.found that a sharpen will only last from 150 bf to 400 bf before a sharpen is needed.summer sawing i use 1-1/4 inch x 10 degree 7/8 pitch at around 22 degree set and diesel at a drip,dont let people tell you diesel will wreck your band belts as i havent seen it yet hope this helps as spruce can be very frustrating.

[Peter Drouin]

Well, I missed the 9.5 part    In that case I would use a 7° x1¼x35 or thinner 30?
And wind it up tight ;D With a mill that's a line with a  pin sharp point on the blade, Should be good to go, cut any wood.

[Fundyheather]

Suggest a big wide router sled will plane away knots and waviness when it happens.

Alternate surface treatments are out there for special 1 off products.  Some effects are enhanced by knots:

https://vimeo.com/45207382

[thecfarm]

Garys Mill,welcome to the forum.Been sawing long?