The silting dense silt distributed in Binzhou Port has low water content and large SPT（N），and is hard and difficult to dig，which brings great trouble to the dredging construction，especially challenges to the digging of trailing suction hopper dredgers，and affects the construction efficiency. In order to study the cutting mechanism of dense silt，the cutting experiment of dense silt has been carried out. Under the conditions of different cutting angles，different cutting depths and different cutting speeds，single draghead tooth and three draghead teeth underwater cutting experiments are carried out for three kinds of dense silt with water content，and the cutting experiments under high-pressure flushing are been carried out. During the experiment，the cutting force is monitored by the cutting force sensor arranged on the cutting tool. Through the cutting experiment of dense silt，the damage characteristics of dense silt are obtained，and the cutting characteristics of dense silt are summarized. According to the experimental data，the empirical formula for calculating the cutting resistance of dense silt rake is established.