I was sawing yew wood today with my band mill and as the blade entered the log, water running, steam was coming out with the saw dust. Yes, yew is a very hard conifer. Didn't seem to matter how wide the cut, from entry to widest point, I was getting steam. It seemed that the faster I cut the less steam I'd get. Tried a different blade and then tried a new blade with little or no difference. I did notice that there was quite a bit of packed wet sawdust being left in the cut! Cutting maple was better but still had steam coming out.
Anybody got an explanation?