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Hackberry uses

Started by proteus, January 29, 2013, 09:16:18 AM

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proteus

Just throwing this out there. Is Hackberry good only for firewood? Has anybody milled it and used it for furniture or building a log home? It is very white with thin grey ash colored lines through the center of the heartwood. If anyone has any pics, I would be curious to see what it would looks like milled into boards.
Greg

Tree Feller

I don't have any pics but I've seen furniture made from Hackberry. It was some attractive stuff. I've used it for turnings...bowls, vases, hollow forms, etc.
Cody

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Tom the Sawyer

Hackberry is very common around here but not sawn for lumber very often.  I have used it for furniture projects and like using it.  It has a pretty grain, stains well and is somewhat lighter in weight than walnut and cherry.

I met an older woodworker years ago who had been a supervisor for the State prison's woodworking program.  They built furniture for many State offices and facilities.  The look of walnut furniture was very popular but walnut lumber was comparatively expensive so they used hackberry and a walnut stain.  He referred to it as 'white walnut'.  smiley_thumbsup

Earlier this month I visited a logger who had an entire semi load of hackberry waiting for a buyer from Iowa to pick it up.  Nice looking logs.
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hackberry jake

I have used it for framing lumber, wouldn't mind building a piece of furniture with it one day. I like the way it looks. I also think its a funny sounding name... I learned how to identify log species by bark , grain, an color since I worked at a sawmill we had no leaves to go by. I had a hard time remembering hackberry so one of the employees (my brother) told me just remember hackberry=cat turd. Since the bark looks like feline feces  :D true story.
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proteus

Thanks for the replies. Yes we have a lot of them here in north eastern Iowa. It does have a very distinctive texture to the bark.
Greg

proteus

Just a little side note. Allen Jackson mentions the Hackberry tree in one of his songs. Can't remember which one though ???
Greg

beenthere

proteus
I'd suggest, getting a few good quality, decent size hackberry logs to the sawmill and see how you like the lumber and the wood. Also, how well the lumber dries. Think of it being similar to elm, if that helps.
But give it a try, as I don't think you will be disappointed. 
Small logs may not be so great, but not many species are for that matter.
south central Wisconsin
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Tree Feller

Quote from: proteus on January 29, 2013, 11:13:05 AM
Just a little side note. Allen Jackson mentions the Hackberry tree in one of his songs. Can't remember which one though ???

It's "That'd Be All Right"

If money grew on hackberry trees
If time wasn't such a luxury
If love was lovesick over me
That'd be alright

There's a town (or used to be one) near Lake Charles, La that is named Hackberry. I think Hurricane Ike virtually wiped it out, though. There is also an Oligocene-age formation in Southwest, La and Southeast, TX called the Hackberry formation. It's produced a lot of oil over the last 50 years. Hackberry trees are common across South Louisiana as they are in East Texas but I don't know if either the town or the subsurface formation were named after the tree.
Cody

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proteus

Beenthere- that may not be a bad idea. There is a big mill less than 3 miles from my house. I will have to stop in and see what they would charge to saw a few logs up. One concern I would have is getting logs that were not damage in the big storm we had in July of 2011. We had in excess of 100 mph winds. All of the trees I have be cutting for firewood had damaged limbs or were blown over. other than obvious splits in the trees are there other thing to look for that would make them unsuitable for lumber? 
Greg

Axe Handle Hound

I had a pretty good sized, straight hackberry cut into lumber a number of years ago.  It had more tension in it than I've ever seen in a log before.  The center cant bowed up like a canoe keel once we pulled the jacket boards off.  Maybe I was just misfortunate enough to get a real cranky log, but every board of that tree fought me from the stump to the sawdust pile.  It would tear out, burn, and pinch saw blades like nobody's business.  Despite that, it was pretty stuff and I'm sure it would look great as furniture, but you're going to work for it.  I ended up using mine for utilitarian purposes where it didn't matter if it bowed or had tear out. 

beenthere

Quoteother than obvious splits in the trees are there other thing to look for that would make them unsuitable for lumber? 
Very likely not, at least that the storm could have contributed to other than splitting. Some logs may just cause you hassle like Axe Handle experienced. But the best way is to see for yourself. We need more here with that kind of real experience.  :) ;)
south central Wisconsin
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Bibbyman

After we got our first mill we had a couple of nice hackberry trees that the beaver had ringed.  They made nice clear lumber and I had it kiln dried.   I couldn't get any woodworkers interested in it.  We used it up on this and that.  There are a couple of shelves in our office that are out of that batch.

There are several good trees here on the farm but with no interest in the lumber, I'll probably let them stand.
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LeeB

Sawing hackberry is a crap shoot. It is in the same family as elm and has an interlocking grain, so it does like to move a lot during milling and drying. If you are going to mill it, try to do so in the cool parts of the year. It is very susceptible to grey stain. It spalts tree really pretty, but will also turn to rot easily. Not much if any rot resistance so don't use it anywhere it will be subjected to lots of moisture. I too like it for turning. Have made a few picture frams and such and used it for secondary wood in a couple of things. Don't have much of it left and I don't see as much of it in Arkansas as I did in Texas. I do still have some rreally wide pieces left that I probably need to do something with.
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WDH

It is very pretty with the pattern made on the flatsawn face by the wavy latewood bands.  Pretty color.  I am not knocking it, but it is absolutely the worst wood that I have ever sawn.  This was only a few big logs, but the stress was huge, the boards really warped and twisted.  Much of it was useless.  I would not saw any where the logs were crooked, sweepy, or the pith was bad off-center.  Here is a pic of some planed hackberry.



 

Here is a 8/4 board that did not behave, but I likely did not cut the log properly.  I have learned a lot since these logs were cut.  This 8/4 board had pronounced side-bend, probably a result of the pith being to one side of the board.



 



 

Don't let this deter you, but like Lee said, it has spiral grain, and like beenthere pointed out, it is in the elm family.  Also, much of what I cut had warp and twist, and it had some gray stain, too  :).  I marked a log today to saw up, so since the 9 years ago that I cut the wood in the pictures above, I am ready to try again  :D.
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LeeB

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Okrafarmer

Let us know how that goes, WDH! With pictures, of course!
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YellowHammer

I've sawn it a couple times, on the first effort I stacked the lumber on my low budget "clearance" pile, and nobody would buy it.  Second time a guy rolls up with 4 big "cherry" logs on his trailer to saw and was upset when I told him they were hackberry.  It cut real easy, but bowed up pretty bad and started surface cracking in the couple days it took for him to come pick it up.
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Ron Wenrich

We had a commercial buyer that mixed it with ash.  They used it in butcher block countertops.  They didn't buy it for a long time.  I believe they were having a problem with it matching.  They also had the same problem matching soft maple and hard maple, and they stopped buying soft maple.

I believe there's a price report for it in the Hardwood Market Report.  There must be someone using it.  Wonder how it looks in flooring?
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Bibbyman

I had some notion way back I my failing memory that they used it for upholstered furniture framing because it would hold screws really well and didn't tend to split.
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WDH

Furniture framing would be a good use.  I have used some of it as drawer sides and backs where you only need short lengths.  A lady in Seattle bought some, that I shipped to her, cut to 1" x 1" by 12" to make spindles for her crafts business. 
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Axe Handle Hound

WDH- were you in my lumbershed???  Those photos are exactly what my hackberry lumber looked like as well.  It makes me feel a little better knowing you had the same experience.   What's your planned method for sawing your next one?

Kansas

We cut an extensive amount of hackberry. We have been getting a lot of it in on salvage jobs where they are taking out trees for more corn ground. We use it just like cottonwood on pallet lumber. However, its best use is for furniture. Letting the logs lay for awhile gives a smoky appearance that woodworkers love. If  you let them lay long enough, you can get spalting which brings a premium. However, there is a fine line between that and rot. Hackberry is one of the best sellers we have for our kiln dried lumber. We pay pallet price for them, and skim off the ones that are moderate in size, mostly white wood. We sell it for 1.60 a board foot. If we hit knots or trouble, we just cut it into pallet stock. When I built my house 3 years ago, I used it in the master bedroom. To me, its one of the prettiest woods in the house. Just something about those smoky grain patterns. Somewhere on a woodworking site, is a china cabinet that a customer built out of it. Just gorgeous.

5quarter

   I use hackberry alot and like it. It's not hard to find good logs around here, and since the pallet Co. is the only place around that will pay anything for it, I pretty much have my pick. I use it primarily for drawer boxes as it is very stable when dry and the wood is very white. I don't have much trouble drying it; perhaps a little more defect than walnut or oak. It does grey stain quick though, so saw it fresh and dry it fast. I'm letting a few really ugly logs that I have spalt and will be excited to see how they turn out, as I have seen some great photos of it. aside from some tear out when planing, it's a pleasure to work with. Good logs usually equals good lumber. Take Beentheres advice and get some good logs and saw them up!
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proteus

Thanks for the pics WDH. The first pic is a nice section of board. Judging from the other pics, I guess Hackberry does not have much use for framing :D

Thanks 'TreeFeller' for the trivia answer.
Greg

Will_Johnson

Like Bibbyman way back in the dim recesses of my brain I have a memory that green hackberry was used back in the day for roof rafters in barns because as it dried it grabbed nails and wouldn't let loose of them.

Yes, green. Remember that before WWII pretty much every rural building in America -- except those ordered from Sears -- were built with locally-sawed lumber which was either actually green or green by today's standards.

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