*^##*: Hickory

[pasbuild]

SOOOO is hickory as hard to saw and dry as it is to work with

[Dan_Shade]

   I can add a few others to that list...

pecan and black locust are two of them.  Old dried up white oak is another!

[Dave Shepard]

There is a pile of pignut hickory blocks just off the end of the mill right now. It was mixed in with the ash. I put a new blade on just before I put the log on, and it wouldn't cut straight for anything. I've sawn it in the past, but I must not have had the right combination of blade and speed. I've sawn quite a bit of black locust and even some really old white pine logs with the sapwood rotted away, and they were a piece of cake compared to hickory. We're sawing ours into firewood. Too bad, looks like really nice wood.


Dave

[Dan_Shade]

I was doing a job for a guy one day, we were rolling, it was a mixed whack of logs, and I was making barn material  for him.  I get a log on there, and both of us looked at it fast and thought it was Poplar, and I tear through it with the rheostat about 80% up, after I take a slab off, the guy goes, "man, that was dragging", and I was like yeah, wonder what's up, then he figured it out, "that's a hickory!" 

 

[SAW MILLER]

I don't even like it for fire wood.You have to empty out the unburned coals every other day. >:(And it will gum up your blade too.Oh ,and it has plenty of tension.I don't like it

[pigman]

Hickory cuts as easy as warm butter if you use the correct blade. The problem I have is that I havn't found the correct blade yet.   The only blade that I have used that cuts hickory decent is WM .055  with the tension cranked up high.

[Dodgy Loner]

I don't even like it for fire wood.You have to empty out the unburned coals every other day.

Interesting, I find that hickory leaves fewer coals than any other wood.  Usually it just keeps burning until there's nothing left but ash.  I think it helps that the wood is fully seasoned (several years, usually) and kept under shelter. 

I love making tool handles out of hickory.  I rive the blanks, dry them, and work them by hand with a drawknife and a spokeshave.  Seems that hickory is a lot harder to work with power tools than with hand tools.

[TexasTimbers]

Yes i agree pecan is tough. I cut osage all the time, and i much prefer it over pecan. osage has the reputation with the public of being super hard to cut because alot of homeowners don't realize how much a sharp chain matters on their little 30cc Homelite. Same with the mill. I use only newly sharpened blades with ceratin woods. One blade per log if necessary and it usually is.

[Part_Timer]

I like cutting hickory better on the swinger than I did on the bandmill.  It just seems to work better.

[Toolman]

I hardly ever cut hickory boards anymore for myself. I can't get them to dry without twisting and severe cupping. I always cut 4 x 4 blanks for handles, etc.

The absolute worst I had was a guy bought 170 yr old white oak barn beams - 16 x 16  12 ft sections. He hired me to saw them into 1" boards. I had only been sawing for 6 months at this time and was obviously naieve(excuse spelling) about super dried white oak. The job lasted five minutes!! I could'nt cut it . I had a TK 1220 then. I cut maybe 3 boards with waves and a sore elbow trying to manually crank the cutting head through. Changed blade, tried again, same results. Customer paid extra after telling him I need bi-metal blades. One week later I cut them with no problem with bi-metal blades I purchased from Smiths Sawmill supplies somewhere in Texas. I chalked that up as a "learning experience"

[Larry]

This
 



saws a whole lot better than the pignut variety.  I have a bunch of pignut to saw this coming winter...WM doesn’t have anything on me with there 4 degree bands...I’ll sharpen a few to 2 degrees.  Less tooth angle means the tooth will stay sharper longer...and saw a lot slower.

[Firebass]

I like cutting hickory better on the swinger than I did on the bandmill.  It just seems to work better.

I haven't sawed hickory,  but I have sawed locas and lots of rock hard maple with my swingmill.   Just saws slightly slower and makes lighter chips.... but the thing I like is the cut comes out true and straight every time never any wavy boards.    I would think that thin kerf anything could be the biggest problem to any difficult cutting wood.   Now all we have to do is figure out how to sell that more kerf is better   Oh I almost forgot... SAWDUST WOOD CHIPS FOR SALE FREE.

Firebass

[TexasTimbers]

.... but the thing I like is the cut comes out true and straight every time never any wavy boards.   

I can see how that would be a welcome feature, especially when cutting Pecan and the blade starts getting dull. It does start to make slight waves. then I know it's time to change blades.

[brdmkr]

While I agree that swingers have a hard time making a wavey board, they can dive and climb if the log has tension, resulting in inconsistent thickness.  I have been dealing with this some lately.  I have found that placing a wedge in the cut can help some, but often I can't tell that it is happening untill the saw starts to bog. 

Anyone else have this problem?  How do you deal with it? 

[ohsoloco]

Saw Miller, you can send me all the hickory that you don't want    I love using it for firewood, especially for those real cold snaps in January and February.  I can load the stove with hickory at night and know I'll wake up to hot coals in the morning....I like to sleep in 

[Firebass]

While I agree that swingers have a hard time making a wavy board, they can dive and climb if the log has tension, resulting in inconsistent thickness.  I have been dealing with this some lately.  I have found that placing a wedge in the cut can help some, but often I can't tell that it is happening untill the saw starts to bog. 

Anyone else have this problem?  How do you deal with it? 

Hey Boardmaker,  You most likely are one of the more experienced swingmillers out there.  We should be asking you that question....   
I know what you mean about those stressed logs.  Its allot more work but on the really nasty ones I take two passes with the blade depth on the first cut half the total depth.  Slows things down a bit but you are insured straight cuts even when the blade is getting on the dull side.   Also I got some sample carbides from the Captain to try and they are a true 1/4" (.250")compared to the 6mm (.236") lucas blades.  They seem to run cooler, I think its from the extra .014" kerf clearance.  They are the same mounting profile and he sells them for a great price.  Maybe a slight bit more chips....   I'm going to use them and order more. 

Firebass

[Sawyerfortyish]

You guys with all your angles and degrees. There's only one blade to cut hickory with a Dang sharp one . I sawed 1500 ft of it and kiln dryed it this spring. I run a circle mill so sawing it was not a big deal. Drying it is the real problem. I run it through the new Weinig moulder and boy I'm glad I waited to run it through that. The little logosol would have puked it's cookies to run this stuff through. But what beautiful flooring it made.

[Dave Shepard]

Does pignut have any uses for tool handles? I have a bunch of clear blocks about 18" with wavy cuts on the sides. Could rive out some handles, if it's good for that.


Dave

[Don P]

It should work fine for tool handles. Throwing conventional wisdom to the wind, sapwood seems to hold up best. Like most ring porous woods you don't really want slow grown tight growth rings, faster grown trees makes denser, stronger wood because there are fewer vessels.

[brdmkr]

Hey Boardmaker,  You most likely are one of the more experienced swingmillers out there.  We should be asking you that question....   
 

We are all in trouble now

If I suspect the blade is going to dive, I will make the horizontal cut in two passes and this usually eliminates the dive.  The problem I have is determining when the dive is going to occur before I get into the cut.  To make 2 horizontal cuts takes 2x as long.  So, I tend to try to use one horizontal cut.  Generally I'm OK with this approach.  Other times, I get caught.    It is strange that the vertical cut never does this.  I have not been able to figure out the geometry that causes problem in the horizontal, but not the vertical.

[WDH]

It should work fine for tool handles. Throwing conventional wisdom to the wind, sapwood seems to hold up best. Like most ring porous woods you don't really want slow grown tight growth rings, faster grown trees makes denser, stronger wood because there are fewer vessels.

Don,

What you describe is counter-intuitive to most people who think that slow growth equals denser wood.  Like you pointed out, this is not the case with the ring porous woods where the wider the growth ring, the higher the specific gravity.  Thanks for pointing this out!