Oak is brutal

Recently I've been struggling to create my first piece of bona fide furniture, and oak bench. I've been able to make half-blind dovetails in poplar wood, and so I thought it'd be no big thing to switch to oak. Wrong. I busted three teeth off my favorite Ryoba saw cross cutting a 13" wide piece of 4/4 oak. Ripping a three foot length of oak by hand worked up quite a sweat. It's taken me a month to simply mill the pieces - haven't even started the joinery yet. Phew!