Pressure bar of the fixed tip for veneer cutting is heated to reduce friction against the wood surface. The pressure bar is contoured with a tip that has a relatively small radius of curvature and a face, in advance of the tip, which has a relatively large radius of curvature. The combination of a heated contoured pressure bar provides performance comparable with that of a roller bar in terms of roughness and fiction, but at significantly reduced cost. We use only alloy steel or high speed steel in manufacturing our pressure bar to assure high quality performance for fixing the log and protects cutting surface.