Is hickory worth milling?

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Heed Mike Van's warning about powder post beetles. You can treat the wood with a material like BoraCare (basically borax), which kills the little buggers when they chew through the wood. Keeps 'em from spreading. I had an infestation from some hickory firewood. Little piles of sawdust everywhere.
 
I just finished building four chairs for a covered outdoor area. I didn't have enough 8/4 stock in the same species for all four so I built each one out of a different wood. The second was from some air-dried Hickory and I think it is the most attractive of the four, with the contrast of the almost white sapwood and the brown heartwood. The informal look of Hickory combined with the refined design of the chair just looked wonderful. I call it "rustic elegance."

But...Hickory is a female dog to saw and it WILL move when drying. Getting the lumber to dry flat is a challenge and I'd recommend lots of weight placed on top of the stack. I spray my hardwood with Timbor when stickering and I haven't seen any indications of PPB's and that includes the Hickory and alo some Ash...both are very susceptible to PPB's.

Hickory is also the most difficult wood I've worked with it being so hard and dense. The chairs are "sculpted" and require a lot of sanding to remove the marks from the angle grinder used. Even sanding with 60 grit in the ROS, the wood would feel like it had been sanded to 320 grit or higher. The Klingspor sanding discs I was using were doing more burnishing than cutting.

That said, I am planning another table and set of four chairs entirely from Hickory just because it is such a great looking wood. It's hard to saw, hard to dry and hard as nails but the finished product makes it worth it.
 
I just finished building four chairs for a covered outdoor area. I didn't have enough 8/4 stock in the same species for all four so I built each one out of a different wood. The second was from some air-dried Hickory and I think it is the most attractive of the four, with the contrast of the almost white sapwood and the brown heartwood. The informal look of Hickory combined with the refined design of the chair just looked wonderful. I call it "rustic elegance."

But...Hickory is a female dog to saw and it WILL move when drying. Getting the lumber to dry flat is a challenge and I'd recommend lots of weight placed on top of the stack. I spray my hardwood with Timbor when stickering and I haven't seen any indications of PPB's and that includes the Hickory and alo some Ash...both are very susceptible to PPB's.

Hickory is also the most difficult wood I've worked with it being so hard and dense. The chairs are "sculpted" and require a lot of sanding to remove the marks from the angle grinder used. Even sanding with 60 grit in the ROS, the wood would feel like it had been sanded to 320 grit or higher. The Klingspor sanding discs I was using were doing more burnishing than cutting.

That said, I am planning another table and set of four chairs entirely from Hickory just because it is such a great looking wood. It's hard to saw, hard to dry and hard as nails but the finished product makes it worth it.

I would love to see some photos of your chairs.
 
I would love to see some photos of your chairs.
If it quits raining here, I'll try to get some pics.

Update: I put a pic of the Walnut chair I just finished in the thread "What are you building with your milled wood." It's still raining here and the other chairs and table are already outside under the pool cabana where they will live.
 
A friend of mine tried to plane some old barn hickory but it rounded the edges of the planer blades so they had to give up.
chad
 

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