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I have a large piece of wenge (left over from a kitchen installation) that I would like to cut down to make shelves. However I have heard it can be very hard to cut as it is such a dense hardwood (and also gives off a dangerous dust). Would I be able to cut it at home using a domestic circular saw (with face mask) or would I be best finding a specialist to do it for me? Cheers.
General rule of thumb is that the darker the wood, the more unpleasant it is to breathe in.!
Depending on how thick this leftover is, if you have a decent circular saw (blade size.?) and put a new blade in it then it should be fine, I'd keep the cuts to less than 1" to be sure of not overloading the saw, which will likely result in kickback rather than blowing a fuse.
If it's more than 1" thick then just make a number of passes, dropping the blade between each pass. Make sure it's well clamped down, keep your fingers well out the way and you should be fine.