Going after hickory

[cutterboy]

Hi all. There is an area in my woods where there are a lot of small hickory trees that I want to remove. Trees that are 6 inches to a foot at the stump. I worked yesterday and today and probably will be at it for a few more days cutting and hauling them back to the barnyard.


 

 
After cutting the tops off I pulled the tree out to the tractor path.


 

 

 

 

 
This next tree is pretty interesting. First of all it had to be cut high because there was old barbed wire running through it. Then it got hung up. I seem to be doing that a lot lately.


 

 
Now look at this old barbed wire. My father bought this farm in 1960 and that wire was old back then. That was 61 years ago. I think that small hickory tree (less than a foot in diameter) is 90-100 years old.


 
Then I pulled the tree down, cut it up and hauled it home.


 

 

 

 
This wood will be for next winter. (2022-2023)


Happy cutting.....Cutter

[taylorsmissbeehaven]

Nice looking wood. I hate it when they hang up, but looks like it didnt slow you down much. Its good to have some Hickory in the mix. Stay safe, Brian

[upnut]

That is a nice size to work with, makes good BTU to boot! We have been working on shag bark hickory as well, along with red oak and hard maple. A good friend of mine called and asked if I wanted some firewood, his 35 acre woods has been thru two major wind storms, a logger to clean up that damage, and then a tornado. The phrase "where men with saws go to die" comes to mind...slow going, but I have time. Your tractor set-up would be a great asset, i definitely have tractor envy! Thanks for the pics!


Scott B.

[WDH]

That hickory will serve well to keep you and your family warm and cozy.   Do you use it to smoke/BBQ meat, too?

[cutterboy]

   Do you use it to smoke/BBQ meat, too?

No, I don't have a smoker and have never smoked meat. However, a neighbor does and he shares so he gets all the hickory and apple wood he wants. ;D

[barbender]

I just got put on a job that's far enough south of my house that there are a few Bitternut hickory on it. I'll be buying the few trees we inadvertently cut and bringing it home😊

[KEC]

About the tree with barbed wire, I've cut trees like that. I'd bend the wire back and forth to break it off and then cut it up by cutting between the wires. I don't think I ever got the wire with the saw. I used to cut some hickory limb wood ~2" in diameter into pieces 4-5" long that was fresh cut and imediately get it under cover. Left outside is no good. Let it partially dry. Start a fire with some dry wood and let it burn down to coals, toss a couple pieces of that partialy seasoned hickory on and cook some chicken or burgers over it. Good stuff and the leftovers the next day really  have a smoked taste.

[moodnacreek]

Live cut and split hickory, stacked under a roof for 2 years is the best fire wood you can get in bulk.

[GRANITEstateMP]

I had 1 hickory in my last load of logs.  I like hickory, but this one had more knots than straight grain!  It got put in the boiler wood pile for the owb at the farm.  Yours looks much nicer to work up

[cutterboy]

Hey GsMP, I have this area of several acres in the woods that have lots of nice straight firewood sized hickory (6"-12"). There are hickory trees spread out all over the farm but this area has a high concentration of them. So I decided to thin them out a bit. I like burning hickory but I'm not fond of handling it. It is very heavy and the shag bark drives me crazy. However, this time next year I'll be glad I have it.

[WDH]

From past highgrading before I bought the property, the upland hardwood hill that my house sits on has an abundance of hickory on it, but it is pignut and mockernut with the smoother bark.  When it is time to grill, I just have to walk a few yards from the house to cut a few hickory limbs to add to the charcoal.

[esteadle]

I've sawed a lot of different types of Hickory and I've noted Dr. Wengerts posts regarding 4 types of hickory. I think I've sawed them all.

Sawed some beautiful, clean 4/4 from logs full on heartwood. Some of the nicest, cleanest, and flattest lumber I've ever cut. We cut flitches like sheets. That was one type that I could not recognize from it's bark. I know Shagbark and Pignut, which is pretty common. I've got to say I must have been cutting mockernut because I didn't recognize it, but discovered it recently in a nearby park.

Another day, I cut the hardest wood I've ever cut. This Hickory was almost all sapwood - almost no heartwood. I kept having to stop and check the blades after I got through the butt ends, because the blade would dive or rise... I kept finding busted the teeth, and had to change the blade. I went through 4 of my best blades, brand new and out of the box, before I switched to my older resharps, and busted 3 more of those before I got out.

Before leaving, I looked around because the neighborhood was mostly clear, even as the surrounding properties were densely forested. I asked the customer if the area had been previously forested. It had been, but when this man was growing up, his dad had previously cut the entire lot over a short period, all but the 4 hickory trees that more or less lined his property. These trees had grown and resulted in the logs I was cutting over his lifetime.

What happened was that those logs were in competition for the first ~10 years of their early life, and were then, suddenly given a free and open canopy to grow, and plenty of water from the favorable drainage, and so put on about 30-40 years worth of rapid sapwood growth. That sapwood is like some kind of crustaceous stone like substance that busts hard blade stellites.

I took home the last of the log's boards, cut at 8/4 +1/8 over. Those 8' flitches all split before we got them off the truck and most split a good 1/3 of their length from both ends as they dried. I had my shop guy make some new blade covers out of it.


Hickory twigs and sticks are what you want to smoke meat with. Shagbark is what I prefer.