Hickory firewood. Pain in the Butt!!

[Landmark]

I burn a good bit of Hickory each year and I tell you its rough. Hickory heats great and lasts along time but man is this stuff heavy and hard to split. I burned wood for several years and then I built a new house. several hickory trees were removed and I sawed them up for firewood. didn't own a wood splitter at the time and used a wedge and hammer. After fighting with that wood so long it prompted me to go and purchase a wood splitter. Also it cinders up something aweful. it will completely fill my stove with cinders if I keep piling it in. I will burn it but man it makes you earn the right to heat with it.

 

[mga]

i'm burning some myself. true that...it is tuff and stringy wood when splitting....and i use a log splitter. i can imagine splitting it by hand would be a challenge.

as for ashes....since i mix it with ash most of the time, cleaning things out is just the dues we have to pay.

 

[Landmark]

i'm burning some myself. true that...it is tuff and stringy wood when splitting....and i use a log splitter. i can imagine splitting it by hand would be a challenge.

as for ashes....since i mix it with ash most of the time, cleaning things out is just the dues we have to pay.

when I was splitting with wedges I would drive one in top, one in bottom, and one in the side. flip over and beat apart with a go-devil. Takes someone who has worked it to appreciate it. pioneers were tough

 

[Chris-PA]

Just split up some hickory that had been standing dead for well over a year, probably two. It sure was hard wood, but just took a little more work. Most of it was split with an axe, some of it with my old Chopper1 axe. I didn't use any wedges at all. I noticed the hardness more with the saws - some of them felt like the chains were on backwards.

Looking forward to burning it this winter, but thanks for the heads up on coaling. I may need to mix some ash in with it. Sounds like a test burn is in my near future!

 

[farmer steve]

hickory. tough on man and machine but worth every btu. this one was about the toughest as it was a limb split off from a big hickory tree. the burl in it was awesome.

 

[redoakneck]

Smells great too, I cut it shorter to help with the splitting, but stringy and tough for sure!!!

 

[mga]

not too many around here. i've dropped maybe 3 or 4. most of the wood around here is ash. however, last couple of days i've been dropping some nice pin oaks. there's about 25 more that have to come down so i'm doing a few every week, but no damn hickory

 

[Ironworker]

I love hickory,

 

[SCBBQ]

Mix some red oak and hickory in the burn barrel Get the pit full of coals and throw a few butts or a pig on the rack. There is not much that smells better. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

It makes pretty good firewood too.

 

[zogger]

Fairly plentiful around here. Good wood, few days ago with the dang "omega block" arctic blast I burned some hickory knots in the evening and for overnight.

I find it dulls chains fast because of all the dirt under the bark (shagbark) and is medium hard to split but not that bad. About the only real negative I have with it is bugs love it!

 

[Zeus103363]

hickory is very plentiful around these parts. I usually cut mockernut hickory. given the chance, I will cut right past the oak to get at some hickory. Love it in the stove or the smoker!


Thanks

 

[msvold]

...
I find it dulls chains fast because of all the dirt under the bark (shagbark) and is medium hard to split but not that bad. About the only real negative I have with it is bugs love it!

Yeah what Zogger said. Bugs love it. I find lots of dust on my wood pile.

 

[unclemoustache]

Got a lot of hickory this year. Don't like having to empty the stove so much, but it is what it is.

 

[Herd8497]

I have 5 to cut in a pasture. All shags. They will sit a few years before they see flame, but for my money there isn't a better wood to watch through the stove window. Hickory has personality!

 

[firebrick43]

when I was splitting with wedges I would drive one in top, one in bottom, and one in the side. flip over and beat apart with a go-devil. Takes someone who has worked it to appreciate it. pioneers were tough

Pioneers would not have cut and split hickory, at least in large logs. Much of the forest was simply ringed and then burned in place. The only steel they had was there axe and gun.

Wedges and mauls were of wood so only the straightest is white oak was split for fences and furniture.

Cabins, barns, and implements of husbandry here in indiana were tulip poplar because of how easy it worked with axes. Old growth tulip poplar was fairly rot resistant as well.

Most fire wood was simply small straight trees the could be cut to length with with half a dozen chops of an axe and no splitting. A lot of waste with an axe on 18" + trees

 

[chuckwood]

I burn a good bit of Hickory each year and I tell you its rough. Hickory heats great and lasts along time but man is this stuff heavy and hard to split.

I'm getting ready to cut down a big hickory. I really hate to do it, I'm unsure of exactly what variety it is, I'll have to do some online research. This tree always provides a good crop of nuts for the squirrels. I've eaten some of the nuts myself, it takes a lot of work to crack them and get the meat out, but they are tasty. This tree is spectacular in fall with brilliant yellow leaves. But it has grown too big and it's shading out the back part of my veggie garden, so it's got to go. I've got a hydraulic wood splitter coming soon, and I'll have some hickory firewood for next winter. If it makes a lot of ashes, that's ok, all the ashes go into the garden, adds minerals to the soil and brings the acidity down a bit. That's good because I use lots of acidic composted leaves in the garden.

 

[haveawoody]

The trick with shagbark is leave it in round format for about 1 month before you split.
Checks start to show pretty good at 1 month and make the natural split lines easy to follow.
Still not the easiest thing to split but much better than fresh green.

Cutting shagbark well not much will help you on that, they always seem to have very dirty bark that eats up sharp chains.
Carry lots of extra chain for shagbark.

And yep people sure had strong will a few generations ago.
Now we have strong cell phone signals and will is not on that line.LOL

 

[Chris-PA]

Be cautious letting it sit - hickory rots pretty easily in rounds.

 

[hayboy]

Mix some red oak and hickory in the burn barrel Get the pit full of coals and throw a few butts or a pig on the rack. There is not much that smells better. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

It makes pretty good firewood too.

Rumor is hanging a shoulder down the chimney makes for some great BBQ, never tried that. On a clean cut job a few years back, there were a LOT of pretty straight hickory left standing. I cut them down into logs to the point where the limbs started and hauled them home. Some had a clear center, some had a red center, one of which split easy enough, can't remember which. I do remember in a few days the green flies tried to rob me of my free wood.

 

[sb47]

I found a guy that calmed that the timber company don't want hickory and toss it as side.
He has an 18 wheeler with a loader crane mounted on it and he could bring me 12" logs all day long.
I asked for a price. he said 500 dollars for about 7 cords, delivered.
I pulled a wad of 1000 dollars out in cash and said bring me two loads, and I'll pay on delivery.
That was six months ago, I called him to see what was the hold up, and it's one excuse after another.

My mesquite guy went from 250 a cord to 500 a cord overnight. Guess I wont be selling mesquite any time soon ether.

Shipping cost is whats killing me.