Use Hickory for What?

[DR Buck]

Had a bunch of 24" dib hickory trees given to me.  Most are 25 ft or longer.  12 -18 ft clean with no branches.  

What would you use it for?   ???

I was thinking either fence boards or 2 by's for building work benches.  ???    Any other ideas?

[Ianab]

http://www.hardwood.org/species_guide/display_species.asp?species=hickorypecan

Looks too good for fence boards
Says it's hard wearing and tough so should make good work benches. Seems a good wood for furniture or flooring if the logs are good quality

Ian

[Larry]

Bar-B-Que, flooring, and beautiful kitchen cabinets.  Not much good for outside wood.  Also likes to twist, turn, and warp while drying so cut a little extra thick.

[Bibbyman]

We move very little hickory.  Some goes to cabinet lumber - can be sold as pecan, I'm told.

Can't be used for outside lumber as bugs will eat it up real fast.

Can be used for RR ties.  I think.

We've sawn up some hickory logs into blocking.  Rough logs end up being firewood.

Some hickory saws real nice.  Most give you a fit.  Pignut or tightbark better sawing and less defects than shagbark - in my experiance.

[Ga_Boy]

I've got some Mockernut Hickory, it sawed up real nice.  I am hoping the dark color of the wood will make it attractive to some woodworker.  I have not had it dried yet.  When I do I pass along what uses it sells for.



Mark

[ohsoloco]

I had a workbench in mind when I milled some hickory a few years ago...it's still air drying out back  :  These were big, straight logs I milled (the smallest probably 24") but the lumber still cupped, warped, and checked pretty bad.  Hickory really puts the putty to my blades..."gums" them up real bad, had to use lots of water.  

Wooden handles for striking tools are usually made of hickory.  My brother has an old hickory stick that my grandfather used in the rail yard.  Actually, I don't think he used it on the job, he got it for my mom when she moved into her own place as a burglar alarm  :D

[HORSELOGGER]

The last 5 flooring inquiries I have had were for hickory. If the logs have been cut and sat through the summer, there will probably be some stain in the sap wood. I would not use it as fence boards, as powder post beetles see it as candy.I have no trouble at all sawing with my circle mill, but a few years a go I had bought a new bandmill, and the first job i had was to saw 80 hickory logs Ruined me for life on the bandmill thing, and I did make some interesting shaped "boards"but thats just me ;D I ran a thousand sq ft flooring order of it recently , and dulled a new set of carbide cutters by the end of the run. It is tough on tooling.

[woodmills1]

Hickory is very tough to cut straight, worse than white oak.

Tool handles and drum sticks are made of hickory

Hickory is very tough to cut straight.

A few years ago hickory was near the top of the list for kitchen cabinet wood, though that would be mostly veneer for commercial cabinets.

Hickory is very tough to cut straight.

Hickory is a pretty wood, with a light brown heartwood and a very white sapwood.  I nick named the heart wood poor mans walnut.

Hickory is very tough to cut straight.

With a little expeimentation with stain hickory and white oak can be made to show very nearly the same color/appearance.

Hickory is very tough to cut straight, hard on sawblades and cutting tools and faily unstable, that is it moves alot.

Many people think it would make good baseball bats but it would be so heavy that swing time would be longer.

Did I mention?  Hickory is very tough to cut straight!

[HORSELOGGER]

Hickory has an inter-locked grain. If you do not use very sharp knives in the machining process, the wood has a tendency to have blow outs, and spit big pockets of wood out of boards.Using spiral heads in my planer and moulder have elim,inated this, as each carbide takes a small bite. I also think the interlocked grain is part of the problem a band has in staying straight in the cut.

[Brian_Bailey]

My dad in his younger days made lots of stick chairs. He liked to use hickory for the back spindles, legs, and stretchers.

I don't believe hickory has interlocking grain because he use to split all these parts out of a log with wedges and a froe. He then draw shaved them down to size on a shaving horse.

He made a set of chairs for my wife and I back in the 80's. After many years of daily use they are still as tight as the day they were made.

Here's a picture of one. The back posts and stretcher are walnut. The back spindles are hickory. The seat is butternut and the legs & stretchers are all hickory.

[Grawulf]

AND it smokes a turkey REAL nice - although I prefer cherry or apple ............oooppppp - sorry! - off subject.  :

[Norm]

Now I know where you got all your talent from Brian, nice chair! Only thing I can make with a wedge and froe is firewood. :D

Uh Grawulf....food is never off topic here. :D

[scottr]

I know of two guys that make hunting bows with hickory . How about a springpole lathe ? Scott

[HORSELOGGER]

Brian, what else would you characterize the grain as when it has the tendency to tear out? I know that running it is a mixed bag, some straight and some irregular grain.

[Ron Wenrich]

If they are that nice, I'd check into the veneer market before I'd be cutting them.  We sell our better butts to the veneer mills.  You may also find a handle mill that would be interested in the other logs.

We saw ours up and sell it to a wholesaler.  They usually want a minimum of 1 Mbf and grades of 2 Com and btr.

Personal uses would be for flooring, cabinets, furniture, handle stock, and dowel rods.  You may even find someone who uses it for bending.  

[Brian_Bailey]

Ron,

Funny you mentioned bending.  There is a fella near me that makes his living making canes. He uses a lot of hickory.

Here's a picture of a cane he had made for the Fryeburg Maine Fair a few years back.  He had some that didn't sell, so he gave me one.




Horse logger,

I think of elm when you say interlocking grain.

I think the problem with hickory is that it's just darn ornery to work with  :D :D. You almost always have to cut it diagonally to avoid tear out or use an abrasive sander    :D.

I've sawn quite a bit of hickory and I always preferred cutting and using Mockernut over any of the others.

[Furby]

I was looking at wood floors the other day, while waiting to talk to someone about windows.
They had some beautiful hickory floor samples on display. I think I'd like it better then oak for a floor.

[FiremanEd]

We slab hickory heavy and make as many ties as we can get out of the log. You need to either box the heart or take as many ties from around it as you can and use the heart as firewood. We're fortunate to have a stake plant near by who will buy any hardwood in 4/4 for making stakes. He gets all the trim boards. My goal is to make as few cuts as possible and get what I call "junk wood" off my yard so I can get back to oak.

Check around your area for someone making survey or silt fence stakes. They don't pay much but it's a market. We're getting $290 delivered for 4/4.

Have a good weekend everyone.

[Engineer]

I love hickory, the grain patterns and colors are awesome.  The kitchen in our current house is hickory, from Kraftmaid.  Nice doors and drawers, but the rest of the cabinet is junk.

I would think it makes a really tough workbench, if you can get any of it straight enough to glue together.   ;)

[woodmills1]

I think hickory is a straight grain parallel fiber wood.  It would tear out as the cutter lifted rather than cut the fibers.

[Ron Wenrich]

Just out of curiosity, if you could sell lumber for grade, why would you just whack it into ties and sell the balance for grade stakes?  It seems like a waste of wood to me.

Now, I understand how the quality is in some hickory.  I also understand that a lot of guys don't like to saw it because its hard.  10 years ago, birch and hard maple were considered "junk wood".  I also remember when oak was considered junk.  

[FiremanEd]

We don't have a market for grade hickory, the flooring plants all say it makes wonderful flooring but they won't produce it because it's soooo hard on their tooling. The stake plant is the only real market we have other than ties. It's better than nothing but not great.

Thank goodness that Koppers buys non oak ties!!!!

[Frickman]

Hickory is hard, but I don't mind sawing it. It is real important to have a sharp saw though. I move some grade through a local concentration yard. The lower grades go into blocking, especially for customers who work on heavy equipment. They love hickory 6x6 and 8x8 for blocking up dozers and such. The pallet markets won't take a stick of hickory, it is hard on their tools and twists up to much in the pallet.

The most profitable market for me is a niche market, wagon builders. We have a number of full and part-time horse drawn wagon builders in our area and they use it for tounges, axles, and other framework. One gentleman dries it by screwing eyebolts in the ends and hanging it from a shed ceiling. This is a very low-volume, specialty market that does not exist in all areas.

[AtLast]

WHAT!!!...stakes?????are you NUTS!!!!...flooring...cabinet.....frames....furniture.....FAR FAR FAR more better things to do with Hickory than frivilious things....CHECK YOUR MARKETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DR Buck]

All these wonderful suggestions and replies and nobody mentioned hickory is HEAVY!    ;D  Made some 19ft beams this weekend to use in modifying the barn to use as a saw shed.  Thought I was gonna bust a gasket putting them up. ;D ;D  

Mill shed pictures will follow in a new posting when I'm complete.