Hickory

[PineHill4488]

I have an opportunity on a hickory log about 40' to a limb of any consequence and 16" at the butt with very little taper.

What is a log like this worth?

If i jump, I'm thinking of sawing it around 2 1/8" by 8' for tables, etc.

Or how is it as beams?

[WV Sawmiller]

   I'd pass on it. Hickory is least valuable wood available to me. Worth more to feed the squirrels on my place. I'd rather have a pine than a hickory. Just me. I would saw it if it fell but I would never cut it down for the lumber.

[1ruralmailman]

you can mill it,it makes great looking cabinets,or flooring.the caveat to this is plan on alot of loss from it.hickory is one wood that behaves,or it doesnt,and not all from the same log will behave the same.some will stay true as the day is milled,other pieces will go screwy as soon as the blade clears the log.good luck let us know how it goes.

[drobertson]

Curious to see which type hickory it is.  Some have more dark heart wood with less sap wood, this stuff usually has great character. While other species have more white wood.. finding four 10 foot logs with little to no knots is not common around these parts, even with the apparent clear butt logs,  This said, if its free of metal, often hard to tell in hickory, could be worth 75 bucks give or take a few.

[sealark37]

Hickory is as hard as a woodpecker's lips.  Use your best blade.   Regards, Clark

[PineHill4488]

I appreciate y'alls opinions.

[mike_belben]

I sell it to the local handle mill for $650/mbf.  I got $192 for one tree about that size.  Has to be 3 sides clear, they cut em like barrel stave to make handles.

Best i can get on what he rejects is usually tie log at $270/mbf.  Or $50 a rick for cut and split to the local BBQ if its too twisty.

[Grizzly]

No mention of flooring? When I was at the flooring store hickory was one of my best sellers. Lots of character and high on the hardness scale. Just wondering.

[Magicman]

Yes, Hickory makes very nice flooring. Was the Hickory flooring full thickness or a veneer over plywood?

[fishfighter]

Heck, I turn down 20 nice straight 30"+ at the butt and a easy 30'+ to the first branches pecan logs. Y'all have me scared trying to saw up any. ;D They went up in smoke in a burn pile. :(

[Don P]

Pecan is the best behaved hickory, lots of stereo cabinets are pecan.
I've made wainscot out of shag and mockernut a couple of times. Hickory is high waste but I like it.

[TKehl]

Heck, I turn down 20 nice straight 30"+ at the butt and a easy 30'+ to the first branches pecan logs. Y'all have me scared trying to saw up any. ;D They went up in smoke in a burn pile. :(

That's sad.  If going up in smoke, it would be better if it were under some BBQ meat.  Hickory and Pecan bring a bit of a premium around here for that.  If a board misbehaves, it goes on the smoker pile. 

[fishfighter]

Pecan here is everywhere. Our parish is the highest output for pecan nuts in the USA.

[Grizzly]

Yes, Hickory makes very nice flooring. Was the Hickory flooring full thickness or a veneer over plywood?

Only one supplier offered Hickory as a veneer over plywood. The others were what we called a true hardwood as in complete boards. $10.95/sqft scared some folks off, especially when they found out that didn't include installation.

[TKehl]

Pecan here is everywhere. Our parish is the highest output for pecan nuts in the USA.

Not everyday someone wakes up to realize the are sitting on a goldmine!

[SineWave]

The only hickory I've messed with was a big pecan that died (stuck by lightning) here in the yard, and that I cut up for firewood (didn't have a sawmill). All I know is, it rots surprisingly fast and makes a LOT of white fluffy ash when you burn it.

[fishfighter]

The only hickory I've messed with was a big pecan that died (stuck by lightning) here in the yard, and that I cut up for firewood (didn't have a sawmill). All I know is, it rots surprisingly fast and makes a LOT of white fluffy ash when you burn it.

It also loves to pop a lot. Reason why I don't use it.

[WDH]

Pecan here is everywhere. Our parish is the highest output for pecan nuts in the USA.

Ahem.....

http://www.agr.georgia.gov/georgia-grown-pecans-.aspx

[WV Sawmiller]

Danny,

   I knew Ga grew lots of pecans and when I was stationed in Albany I hunted squirrels in a friends grove. I remember people there used pecan shells for mulch in flower beds and such like they do bark in other places. They had hydraulic rams on the front of their tractors to shake the trees and modified sidewalk sweepers they used to pick up the nuts.

   I also knew Texas grew lots of pecans and it makes sense LA would but somewhere I had read, or saw on a Game Show (Pure proof for accuracy - right?) that Oklahoma was the leading pecan producer in the USA.

   In any case my opinion/vote can be influenced by pecan loyalists mailing me a few - already hulled and picked out get extra points. :D :D

[D6c]

Pecan is the best behaved hickory, lots of stereo cabinets are pecan......

I guess I never thought about Pecan being in the hickory family.....no pecan in my area unless someone plants it.  I put a couple in my yard but they're still only about 6' high.

[Don P]

IIRC there are 7 hickories, pecan is the thin shelled domesticated one. I think we felled a bitternut today, smoother barked than a mockernut but sort of in that same vein with rounder nuts (very immature) and a large amount of handsome red brown heartwood.

[WDH]

There are two types of hickories.  The True Hickories and the Pecan Hickories.  Leaves are deciduous and compound.  Fruit is a nut with either an indehiscent or dehiscent husk.  Dehiscence has to do with whether the husk naturally opens or remains tight to the nut.

The true hickories have leaflets of 5 to 7  and the nuts are more rounded.  Here are the Southern true hickories:
Pignut
Shellbark
Shagbark
Southern Shagbark
Sand
Black
Mockernut

The pecan hickories have more than 7 leaflets and the nuts are more flattened.  Here are the Southern pecan hickories:
Water
Bitternut
Pecan
Nutmeg

The Northern Area has less species, not as much diversity, and grits are eschewed, particularly in one part of Maine  ;D. 

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

    

[wolf nemeth]

Well, while we're talking about pecans, perhaps  i can get some info....we bought an old house that had a couple of huge pecan trees, probably the  age of the house (180 y.o.)  After 16 years we finally got a  crop, and what a crop it was.  And the best nuts we ever tasted!
  Since then, nothing.....nada, zip, zilch. Is this  common with older pecan trees?
  By the way, I milled what I could of   the one that had bee struck by lightening. Appx  40" dia.   log that my  FEL couldn't handle,  not even a 6' log.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

https://extension.msstate.edu/node/25780

Why Pecan Trees do not produce every year.

[fishfighter]

Well, while we're talking about pecans, perhaps  i can get some info....we bought an old house that had a couple of huge pecan trees, probably the  age of the house (180 y.o.)  After 16 years we finally got a  crop, and what a crop it was.  And the best nuts we ever tasted!
  Since then, nothing.....nada, zip, zilch. Is this  common with older pecan trees?
  By the way, I milled what I could of   the one that had bee struck by lightening. Appx  40" dia.   log that my  FEL couldn't handle,  not even a 6' log.

I have some trees that are native that are well close to 100 years old that produce.

Has cotton been grown there before? If so, a pecan tree will just about never produce nuts. Another killer for production of nuts is a very wet spring. Yep, third one back to back here. >:(

You can do a soil test around the tree. Zink and triple 13 helps a lot. That has to be spread out from the trunk, out to the end of the branches as the sprouts just start popping out in the spring. That is how big the root system is.  I have an easy 300+ producing trees on my place. 2/3rd are grafted Elliot trees. Those are the money makers when they produce were native nuts only bring in about half the price.

[D6c]

Interesting.....about all we have here are native shag bark hickory.  In a good year they produce tons of nuts but about half are wormy.  In my opinion they're just about the best tasting nuts but difficult to shell, and for that reason I've never seen them for sale commercially.

[WDH]

William Bartram, a Botanist, traveled through Georgia in about 1770 and wrote a book called Bartram's Travels.  He described how the native americans used the hickory nuts.  Here is a paraphrase from his book.

"Bartram documented that he saw 100 bushels of shagbark hickory nuts that were stored at just a single Indian family home. The nuts were pounded into a mash, and then boiled in water, where a white, oily liquid separated called 'hickory milk.' The milk was skimmed off, and the liquid was described to be as sweet and rich as a fresh cream and was an active ingredient used by the Indians in cooking corn bread and hominy grits."

[wolf nemeth]

Yep,  this place was a cotton plantation once upon a time. I'll try that  zinc and triple 13  next  spring if it's not a real wet one. thanks fo the info

[SineWave]

We have a bunch of the Mahan variety pecans on the land here. They're also called "paper shell" pecans because you can shell them without a nut cracker. Big nuts, thin shells, sweet flavor, what more can you ask for?

Around here, pecans grow very fast. I have mahans that are producing nuts at age 8, and a 50-year-old tree is huge, and probably close to dying of old age (or whatever). I don't think pecans typically live very long.

[btulloh]

Back to the original post:  I don't like to cut, saw, burn or clean up hickory or hickory limbs.  Other than that, it's great.  I admire people who admire hickory, but I ain't one of em.  Except for handles.

This thread has gone a little off the original track, so I'll just keep going a little bit further:  WDH gives a good list of all the hickory variants.  Thanks.  Around here in central VA we have always just had HICKORY trees.  There may be some other variations, but I can't say I can find one on my place.  Anyway, now that I see the list I'm wondering what I have here from that list.



  

 
We have pecan trees, some over a hundred years old. They have small nuts and every nut has a worm (like the chestnuts).  I guess they need to be sprayed for the worm problem and maybe fertilized for the nut problem.  In any case, a nut hardly ever hits the ground, because of the squirrels.  The squirrels plant the nuts, giving us lots of pecan trees in flower beds.  (Same with walnuts).  I would love to eat the pecans if they were a little bigger, but I don't care much for worms.

I will say that 100 year old pecan wood is pretty nice looking.  It is mostly uniform brown heart with just a little sap wood on the edge. About the color of chestnut but not quite.

[btulloh]

We have a bunch of the Mahan variety pecans on the land here. They're also called "paper shell" pecans because you can shell them without a nut cracker. Big nuts, thin shells, sweet flavor, what more can you ask for?

I could ask for you to send me a bushel of those pecans. 8)

[SineWave]

I could ask for you to send me a bushel of those pecans. 8)

I'd consider it, if the tree was still around. It got hit by lightning in a tropical storm maybe 8-10 years ago. I forget the name of the storm, it was a spanish man's name (Ernesto maybe?). Anyway, that was the end of that tree. But fortunately, it had LOTS of offspring that grew either from nuts or from root shoots. Those young trees are just starting to produce now.

[WDH]

btulloch,

With that bark, and 7 leaflets, what you have is mockernut hickory. 

[btulloh]

Thanks for that info, WDH. 

The last two years there have been copious amounts of mockernuts falling on the tin roofs here.

[drobertson]

and if you were to find a straight grained, no knots one, you would soon realize why the handle prices are as they are,, I like the bark for smoking pork, and the plain sawn 4/4 for any interior work. Knots are friends with character,,

[thecfarm]

eschewed is a good word to use at certain times.

[WDH]

With certain things  :D.

[thecfarm]

 :D

[btulloh]

 :D :D

[Don P]

Mockernut is also known as white hickory, it has a wide band of white sapwood, the heart isn't as pretty or dark as a shagbark.

Have a friend that eschewed horses but he don't mess with them no more.

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

eschewed is a good word to use at certain times.

Teacher, I did my homework but my dog eschewed it up...

Herb

[paul case]

Wanky is the word here for what hickory does when it dries.

PC

[Crusarius]

This is not very nice to learn :(

I have a few shagbark hickory trees that have fallen down and I want to make flooring or cabinets out of them. I am guessing I should expect a large amount of loss during drying? They will be air dried since I do not have a kiln.

[paul case]

If they are good with no defects, and proper sticking/stacking with weights on top they may dry ok. Don't stake your living on it though.

PC

[SineWave]

eschewed

Gesundheit!