Wood Library.. Hickory

I have never had the opportunity to work with hickory but a friend of mine made a bookcase out of it that turned out to be gorgeous. It may be hard wo work with but it is a pretty wood with wonderful colors and grain pattern.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

There are various types of hickory.

hickory, bitternut – Carya cordiformis
hickory, black – Carya texana
hickory, nutmeg – Carya myristicaeformis
hickory, pecan – Carya illinoensis
hickory, sand – Carya pallida
hickory, water – Carya aquatica
hickory. mockernut – Carya tomentosa
hickory, pignut – Carya glabra
hickory, shagbark – Carya ovata
hickory, shellbark – Carya lacinosa

Hickory has a Janka hardness of around 1800

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

hickory works beautifully. You just need VERY sharp tools

-- The only easy wood project is a fire

ya i agree, I have a commission for hickory right now and it is a beautiful wood just it is very hard and i tend to treat it like the softer woods that I’m used to trying to force it through the tools (gotta get out of that habit). the other thing i don’t like is all the streaking and the heart wood. dying hickory is beautiful too if you have a bad piece with heartwood as two coats of dye will totally equalize everything. thanks for the post.

I am trying to make a table for my Aunt and Uncle and I’ll be darned if I can keep the top flat for this project. It seems that the more figure is in the wood , the more it twists and warps . I guess there’s a reason they make baseball bats , etc. out of it instead of lumber. My local lumber supplier told me if I wanted boards thicker than 3/4” , I would have to glue them together myself. Wish me luck !!

-- Dusty56@comcast.net