Is hickory difficult to work with?

I’ve never used Hickory so I’m interested in what others have to say about it too.

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

it is a difficult wood to work with…. it doesnt like to be worked by hand tools period… chisels hand planes doesnt matter it doesn’t take well to them… also very very hard… splinters alot too

It’s the toughest wood I have ever worked with. My planer growls when I run hickory though it. For this reason, I tend to shy away from using it. Purpleheart is probably the next hardest wood I work with, but it is soft compared to hickory. However, hickory is pretty wood, especially with a good mix of heart and sap wood running though it. I have seen some outstanding cabinets made out of it.

-- I don't make mistakes, only design changes....www.dgmwoodworks.com

Hickory is great for structural use, i.e. hidden away since then you can use it rough. God-awful stuff to work by hand and it mauls and mangles planer blades. It’s primary use seems to be tool handles that need to absorb lots of shock. Makes good bows also.

-- Ooo, er.

Hickory is hard and heavy….worse than hard maple.

Man, you guys are all Hickory-haters. ;-) I built my entire set of kitchen cabinet doors out of hickory and actually enjoyed working with it. Yes, it’s heavy. Very heavy, in fact. Yes, it’s tough to work with hand tools. But keep your bits and blades sharp, plan your edge routing carefully, take very light cuts with a surface planer, and don’t plan on doing too much hand mortising and I think you’ll be pretty happy.

Actually, I used hand tools a bit here and there in my hickory work to fine tune tenons, muntins and so on and had pretty good success. And I’m not exactly a Chris Schwarz when it comes to hand work.

I don’t know how intricate you’re planning your bar to be, but hickory does quite well with relatively straightforward work and finishes really nicely. The tone is anywhere from blonde to a deep chocolate color and looks terrific with a nice clear satin oil-based poly.

Super intricate/delicate work however and I’d concur with our brethren that hickory might be challenging for that. But I’d happily turn to hickory again any time.

-- Anything worth doing is worth redoing several times.

yeah Hickory is beautiful. intricate work stay away from hickory. i like it for handles and stuff but for a bartop it should be good. personally im not a fan of the heartwood i like the darker pieces of hickory heart as opposed to the lighter ones… it takes awhile to pick through the pile but if you take your time selecting the wood its beatiful…. it also has some of the most beautiful knots ive even seen

I agree, its really hard to work with but I think it’s worth it. But, as was already said, keep the tools sharp

-- Gary, DeKalb Texas

I have to agree with commajockey. Hickory is beatiful wood and makes beautiful cabinets. It is hard wood but hey. It works about like Oak to me. We make cabinets with hickory all the time here.

-- Jerry--A man can never have enough tools or clamps

Hard on tools. and heavy. The grain paterns have to be something that you can live with. I heard that some people use a whiting finish to kill some of the grain patterns.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

And the nuts are great to eat too but they take a sledge hammer to open, no joking! :( Hardest and heaviest darn wood I’ve had the pleasure to work with.

As a kid, we had 1,000’s hickory trees on the farm. Dad and I must have cut 20 truckloads of hickory a year for firewood. Breaks my heart now to think of all of that wood that kept us warm all winter. We always used hickory to make the handles for the axe and sledge hammers. They would last a long time, or at least until I missed and split the handle.

-- Chunk

So, what I am hearing is buy a new saw blades before I start, take small amount off with the planner and joiner at a time so a few extra passes will be necessary and if I am not concerned with matching grain pattern (which I do not want it to match) and if my design is not too difficult I will still be challenged, but not disappointed. I am in!

I am fortunate to live about 60 miles from Renneberg Hardwoods and they sell rustic Hickory plywood. I looked at it today and it has tremenous character!

-- Jeff, Fargo, ND

The best wood in my opinion. We have built 3 kitchens out of Hickory so far, we are building a hickory kitchen right now. I agree with Commajockey. Great wood and awesome charactor. It is very hard, it takes me more passes to raise a panel in hickory then in say oak. I think it compares favorably with hard maple in hardness. My table saw blade cuts it like butter and I actually think my current blade is nearing the end of it’s life. Go for it, you will enjoy it. I actually use a shaper when building doors so I am not sure how a router table would hold up doing the same task for say raising panels. I cut door lip edges with my PC 690 in the hickory with no problem.

-- Jerry Nettrour

I have built quite a few cabinets and entertainment centers with Hickory. Everyone is right. Very hard and brittle. Loves to blow out if you try to mill too much at one time. A new saw blade and remember to take twice as many passes with the planer, jointer, and router. I love the look of Hickory and if you take your time to pick your panels first from your stock of Hickory, You can make a real statement with the flow of grain from one to the other. Let the light and dark grain flow from one to the other. It will be almost impossible to pick all light or all dark. That’s the beauty of Hickory. The first major piece of furniture my 16 year old son built in my shop was a hickory corner home entertainment center. I figured if he could build it in hickory, he could handle anything. Turned out great!

-- John @ Myrtle Beach

Be sure to pre-drill all your screw holes for hinges, etc. If you don’t, the wood will split. If wood doesn’t split the screw will break. Lesson learned the hard way….............LOL

-- Jerry--A man can never have enough tools or clamps

Has anybody tried to turn it? It’s some hard stuff to turn when I can’t turn it on my 1000lb jet lathe. :) but it is sooooooooo beautiful!

-- "I don't cut wood. I machine it!" G.M.

I’m building a small box from hickory right now and so far have had no problems, sharp tools help I’m sure, but no issues. This is my first time using it so extensive experience is not speaking here.

-- Dave- New Brunswick

Here are a couple of projects I did from hickory. I like the wood personally.

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/8908

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/8299

I did find it tough to plane but just had to take thinner passes. I found it less likely to tear out than the maple we get up here. It seems that the maple that is available in Alaska wants to tear out and splinter badly if it’s even in the same room with a router.

I love the warm glow of hickory and would gladly use it again.

Mart

it works really well, if not best, in my smoker !

-- http://www.furnituremann.ca/

Nice project Mart, I like the wood grain.

-- Jeff, Fargo, ND

I made a box out of hickory and vowed I’d never make another small box using it. The box is beautiful, solid & heavy but the wood is hell on router bits! I was trying to cut grooves for a sliding top and bottom – broke three 1/8” router bits doing so, using the slowest feed rate I felt practicable. That gets expensive!!! Suppose I could have used a slotting bit instead of a 1/8” upcut spiral. It cut well with my table saw and seemed to sand well. I didn’t try to use a plane and don’t have a jointer or planer so can’t comment on that.

Jim

Hickory is a beautiful wood, but very heavy, very hard, difficult to work with, it does splinter a lot, and it also splits somewhat. I still like it. Sharp tools, and pre-drilling is the secret. Sounds like most of you have used it at one time or another.

-- You can't trust dogs to guard your food.

When I built my shop, I had about 3-4 Hickory trees on the land I cleared. The rest were almost all oak, and a couple of Sweet gum trees, and a couple of Cherry trees. Once I got them cut into some 6-10 ft. logs, I tried to work some short Hickory for re-sawing on the b.s.. Not good!! Eat up 2 blades. They were about 20-22” long. One thing I do know—- They make a good hot fire in the fireplace for a backlog!!! lol.

-- Remember--- one good turn-- gets most of the blanket!!!!

I like it. Machines up real nice. Minimum tear out. Did someone say something about sharp blades…

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

My parents had all new hickory cabinets put in their kitchen about 6 months ago, and they had 2 drawers left over that had to be rebuilt to the right width. So, I now have a very small stash waiting for me to get my shop in order. I’m going to try to make a mallet out of the sides and backs (kind of plain looking), and I think there will probably be enough in the fronts (much nicer looking) for a couple of picture frames and maybe a couple of letter openers, something like that.

-- Measure twice, then try to figure out which one was right.

Hickory? I won’t do a consignment job with it. Too many do overs because of tear out. Nothing worse than half your door panels having a chunk tore out while making raised panels

-- mike & judy western md. www. pvwoodcrafts.com pvwccf1@verizon.net