Free Hickory

[tbow388]

I have a neighbor down the road that just had a 20" at the base hickory cut. He asked me if I wanted to come and get the wood because he wont burn it in his fireplace.

Well since I sell wood I said "sure, i'll come get it"

Now the question.

Since I will be selling this to smokers and cookers, What size do you want to cut it? I normally cut 16-18" but have been told that people that use it to smoke will want it shorter.

What are the rules for burning hickory in your wood stove? I know it burns a lot hotter.

 

[ponyexpress976]

My smoker does well with baseball to softball size chunks. Burn it like any other wood.

 

[tbow388]

Cutting

Since I don't have a splitter I was thinking about cutting 4-6" slabs and then breaking it apart to sell.

 

[ponyexpress976]

that should work just fine...Id make sure I had someone that wanted before going through all the effort though.

 

[ChrisHager]

I'd agree in that you might want to have someone lined up first.

And I agree as well on the size comment. I use fist sized chunks in my smoker. I burn lump coal though. For people smoking with all wood, they may want something different.

 

[avalancher]

Keep in mind one thing, folks that want it to smoke with want the bark gone. The bark gives meat a very bitter taste, and I have to strip all bark from the hickory that I sell. And that is one of the biggest reasons why I charge and get $450 a cord! I supply three places in knoxville (about an hours drive each way) and none of them will take hickory with the bark on.And I dont make any deliveries for anything less than two cords for that distance.

 

[iowa]

4-6" long rounds. let em dry and pop em apart!

 

[PEKS]

Nice Haul..
Hickory is one of my favourite and most abundant woods..
Good workout splitting it too..

 

[Encore]

Like others have mentioned, you have to get all the bark off it, which I have found to be a gigantic pain in the neck so I just burn it or sell it

 

[stihly dan]

Why not cot and split at 16? Then when some one wants to cook with it, chop saw to desired size. That way if no one wants cooking wood, you still have firewood.

 

[redheadwoodshed]

tbow, hickory and pecan is mostly what I sell.For some reason the old folks have it their head that that is "cooking wood" and won't burn it in their fireplace or wood heater.They say it pops too much for the fireplace, but I haven't noticed any more popping than with ash or oak because I season my wood at least a year before I burn it.
With hickory and hand splitting, either do it very soon after you cut the tree, like that day, or wait about a year, get it up off the ground and wait until the bark starts to fall off.If you can go ahead and knock off all the bark before you buck it, your chain will thank you and so will your hand if it cramps like mine does when I have to do some saw filing.
I sell a lot of hickory to some cajun fellows who roast a few pigs in the winter, they want it cut and split just like any other wood, because they cook the pigs on a hanging rotisserie.
For folks with a regular smoker, I'd say 12-14 inches split about 2"x2", a lot of work with a splitter, even more without. I won't discourage you, however, I also have a couple of regulars who buy a rick of this every fall for 100$ a rick(1/3 cord). If you have ever been curious enough to bite down on a green hickory nut, then you would know what a pork roast taste like when cooked over some hickory with the bark left on. The dogs liked it.
Hickory is my favorite wood.I love the smell and you get the most value btu from hickory, compared to our other hardwoods.It does just fine in a heater or fireplace, in my experience( about 35 years) of burning hickory.
I'm still working on this load of hickory logs.View attachment 263370View attachment 263371 the big one is 54" across.

 

[GM_DaddyMac]

Why not cot and split at 16? Then when some one wants to cook with it, chop saw to desired size. That way if no one wants cooking wood, you still have firewood.

This makes the most sense to me. Given the steps required -- buck, split (by hand), season, de-bark, chunk, etc. and without a list of clientele looking for seasoned hickory chunks you may be better off keeping it as firewood and processing smoking wood when there is demand.

As the "TN Titan" (Avalancher) noted there is a reason to charge what he does, mostly to cover the cost of labor and expenses to process it into viable smoking wood -- as well he should.

You may also want to take a look at what the cost of one those nylon sacks of chunk wood costs at a local store and compare that to what you would charge for the same amount of wood. Compare that relative to your costs to create that volume of sell-able wood chunks.

Best of luck, whatever you decide.

 

[jdc123]

Tbow, PM sent.

 

[tbow388]

Thanks

Thanks for all of the replies.

I am planning on getting this tree Friday I think I will cut in my normal 16" length's and if someone wants slabs I will do that later.

A great thing about this tree is that if I get it and get it all cleaned up I know my neighbor has several red oaks that he needs cut up. He heats with wood also and I said I would cut them if he would split it with me.

He has several hundred acres that have a lot of timber so I want to do this guy right. He also has helped me become a better gardener. He commercially gardens for some of our local super markets and has given me all sorts of tips and tricks.

Nothing like a good neighbor!!!

 

[tbow388]

Lucked Out

Went and cut this hickory today. WHEW what a job. It was 10-15 feet down a hill.

Now the super lucky part. My neighbor came out and pulled some big logs up te hill so I could cut on flat land.

Now the even luckier part is, I was getting ready to load and he said" how are you going to split this"? I said "I split everything by hand.
Thats when he told me that he had a old splitter and he would prefer if I used it so I wouldn't have to split it by hand.

I am very very thankful!!!!!!