Last Spring i CSS a blowover pignut hickory. Victim of a May 2018 tornado here. When offered the tree for firewood it was September 2019 and it had not put out leaves that Summer. Too overgrown to get at. Rootball still attached. Good friend of mine likes hickory so i stacked it in his lean to shed right away. He burned some recently and said its the best burning hickory he's ever had. I checked a split today and 15% inside MC. Split of the split. Bark fell off when split. I have access to a couple more like this but he has no room for it. Heres my thread from last April 028 vs. a dead Hickory.
Minimal room. Prefer BL over hickory. Hickory tougher to hand split. One tree i have to take so ill figure it out. Have a customer who wants hickory next Fall and i have some thats at 1.5 years CSS now.
I don’t see any shingle marks on it. That means you ain’t stackin on the roof yet. Enough with the excuses it’s hickory dagnabbit Havent you ever heard of Hickory Hysteria? Very catchy disease.
In my experience hickory is on par with BL heat wise but as you said hand splitting it is a pita and bugs seem to love it. Ive also seen sparks shoot off my chain several times when cutting hickory.
I was going to suggest shopping for a vacant lot, but land is probably 100x more expensive in the NE.
Dead hickory will dry pretty quick Brad. Just remember there are only 4 types of wood. Locust ,Hickory, Locust and Hickory!
I split this as soon as i cut it and it split easily for the most part. The shagbark i cut last weekend didnt when i halved a few. Its still sitting in sections waiting to be split.