Is hickory worth milling?

[CoreyB]

I have a lot of hickory and wondering if it is worth milling and do you need any special drying procedure ?

 

[Mike Van]

Unless you have a use for the lumber, or a market for it, it's great firewood. Powder post beetles will move into the sapwood within a year.

 

[redoakneck]

I have a buddy made a hardwood floor with it

 

[homesteadeshane]

I just finished a live edge table out of hickory. it turned out kind of neat

[photo=medium]3243[/photo][photo=medium]3240[/photo][photo=medium]3245[/photo]

 

[MontanaTed]

Depending on the area Hickory is a very popular wood for woodworking. Can be temperamental at times in certain applications, but has great grain configuration and is in my opinion is one of the most fantastic smelling woods out there.

 

[babybart]

A new house I just wired up had installed hickory cabinets and they were gorgeous with the light and dark grains. I made the mistake of showing the Mrs. and now there are some Hickory's marked on our property for me to make into OUR new cabinets.. . Well at least the tops and milling scraps go to the wood pile.. .

 

[Eric English]

That is a beautiful table I love the old saw for a brace

 

[Rev]

I made the mistake of showing the Mrs. and now there are some Hickory's marked on our property for me to make into OUR new cabinets..

No mistake there really. All's well that ends well. Hickory makes the nicest cabinets I've ever seen.

 

[Rev]

Dried scraps for smoking meat!!!

 

[Marine5068]

It does make great looking cabinet doors and decorative shelving or tables, bar tops or fireplace mantles.
Hard as hell and great character in it's grain. Of course also makes great hammer and tool handles.
If you have a lot of it, all of the the tiny limbs can be chipped up and bagged and sold to smokers for a good profit.
I use old wood pellet bags to bag specialty woods for sale to specific customers.

 

[Rev]

Hickory makes excellent flooring.

You know I just learned recently, the National Hardwood Lumber Association makes no distinction at all between Hickory and Pecan! They are grouped and graded together as interchangeable when refering to them as lumber.

 

[Rev]

Pecan (Carya illinoensis), is the largest member of the hickory family and grows throughout the Eastern half of the United States. It is best known for its delicious nuts and is the state tree of Texas.

Hickory is our most dense and strongest North American hardwood lumber category. As a result, the lumber and trees have had a number of interesting applications ranging from drum sticks and tool handles to car bodies and kitchen cabinets. A full cord of air dried hickory firewood is equal to nearly a ton of coal. Pecan is included in the hickory lumber category and NHLA graders.
https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/fnr/fnr-285-w.pdf

 

[Trx250r180]

Seems like when shopping for cabinets the guys eyes go to the Hickory ,they look real good in log cabins also .

 

[Rev]

The strength of it is the same whether it's heartwood or sap wood. You don't get that with every other species.

 

[CoreyB]

Looks like I should really start focusing on milling some hickory. Would drying it as slabs be best. I just have a chainsaw mill and can get a bandsaw when I find a good deal. That way I am not wasting as much kurf loss.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I mill EVERY nice hickory log I can get,

I really like the lumber they give,

Then I sticker it for air drying,

When I get enough logs milled, like in this pile, it get's moved to a new spot for proper stickering and permanent air drying.

SR

 

[Trx250r180]

How do you like the band mill ? How long a board can you cut on it ?

 

[fordf150]

I milled up some this summer. Vowed to never do it again. Makes really nice wood but the hickory was just to rough on my cheap mill and blades. Went thru a band every hundred bf or so compared to 300 bf out of a blade used for oak, poplar, elm

 

[Sawyer Rob]

How do you like the band mill ? How long a board can you cut on it ?

I like it very much, it's been an excellent mill!

Set up the way I am, I can mill a 20' 6" log

SR

 

[MontanaTed]

I milled up some this summer. Vowed to never do it again. Makes really nice wood but the hickory was just to rough on my cheap mill and blades. Went thru a band every hundred bf or so compared to 300 bf out of a blade used for oak, poplar, elm

Hickory likes to show no mercy to tooling. I've never dealt with truly ancient Hickory, but I watch a salvage company try to dismantle a barn that had solid White Oak beams. At the time he was doing this the barn was over 100 years old. those beam laugh at his bran new chains, he ended up buying carbide chains to cut it so I could only imagine what Hickory would end up like after a 100 years.