Anyone not like to deal with hickory or if you do take it, anything special you do? Do you prefer it green or not? Any other things you do to fell/split/stack it? It's sometimes stringy but hasn't been too bad but I have a LOT of it on my land, thinking about taking a bunch of it. Makes good firewood. We don't have shagbark here that I know about, it's other species.
I get mostly pignut and bitternut with the occasional shag thrown in. Splits pretty well with the isocore but big rounds get the monster maul (see avatar). Main thing to keep in mind is it will go punky right quick sitting on the ground or without a top cover. I’m curious how much demand there is for firewood down your way, especially hot stuff like hickory.
It busts better when frozen. Not that you would ever be able to take advantage of that. lol The bark is tougher than shoe leather when green (bitternut is mostly what I have). Boring bugs will tear it up if left to sit around here...lots of frass. Seems like the bark will easily let go after 3-4 months or so here. Have used a bunch of it for 'outdoor flooring' in the past. I go at it mostly the same as any other wood I process. Anything bigger than 18" diameter usually gets the maul before being finished on the splitter.
I can sell all the firewood I want to sell and I don't even deliver anymore. Live on a busy road, it's just people see the wood stacks and then it's repeat business. Not a big operator at all, just a hobby, something to keep me in the woods and active physically. Oak is the most common firewood by far. Hickory is somewhat of a specialty or top-shelf firewood. But I have so much of it, and am thinning some trees anyway in a crop tree release project, I am leaning towards taking a lot more than previously planned. This also has to do with the fact that I had two knowledgeable people, one a logger and one a forester, tell me that hickory is NOT desirable in logging and that was very surprising to me. I assumed that there is always a market for hickory here, but not so. I researched that and finally dug out the negatives. grows very slowly can dominate a tract lack of demand in pulpwood size if sold for lumber, has to be perfect very hard wood dulls your chain too fast splinters easily more difficult to limb and top apt to split upon felling splits or checks quickly if not sold quickly loss of productivity dealing with it a gray staining can set in, bad for milling high tension in the wood, bad for milling boring bugs set in quickly In some areas (apparently, not mine) it enjoys good demand for lumber for flooring, pallets, mats, ties, but again, it seems that the loggers don't like it. Some millers really like it for lumber, the negatives aside. I assumed that there would always be demand for hickory, that they would always take it as pulp or chips but that isn't the case. To hear my logger friend say, "We don't even want it!" was surprising. I do note that it's a good wildlife tree and not just for squirrels. Rabbits, beaver, ducks, turkey, bobwhite. Deer, not so much, only if other stuff is unavailable. I can't envision a bird swallowing a hickory nut.
The land behind my lot was logged out probably 20yrs ago and they left the Hickory’s. They are massive trees which led me to believe they are undesirables for timber.
I process it with a chain saw and a log splitter!!! All kidding aside, I'll take hickory when given the chance. Don't get a lot of it even though there is enough around here. Pignut the most common along with bitternut and shagbark. It can be stringy when split, but I've sectioned up big rounds with the Isocore without any stringiness. Have some shag at storage I need to process. One lesson I recently learned from cutting shagbark. Wear eye protection. I don't normally (I know not smart) and a shard of the bark hit me in the eye while I was cutting. Hickory bark is the hardest IME and I've seen sparks when cutting it. Give it at least couple of Summers to dry enough. I have a bunch that will go this coming Winter. I scored a pignut blowover a few years back. Down for over a year and a half. It was still good with some loose bark. It does have a short shelf life though.
Yep. Makes me wonder... I see a lot of clearcuts here where there is not one stem left standing, they cut every single one down. If they don't take the hickory, that means it's on the ground. To be put into those massive piles to rot. Or burn. Can you imagine how much hickory firewood would be out there? I am going to be on the lookout for this. If I see a logger friend, I will ask him about it.
I modified my Huskee/Speeco log splitter to specifically better split Hickory (and to a lesser extent, Sweet or Black Gum): Original wedge: New wedge: I also added a 2" thick plate to the anvil: I have a crap-ton of Hickory. This is Shagbark is coming down today or tomorrow:
One score I got several cords of shag bark hickory. I didn’t treat it any different than any other wood. Cut it, split it and stack it just as you would for any species. It was a bit stringy at times but no where near elm or gum. It sure was awesome burning when the time came. Wish I could get it regularly.
I try to split it right away after cutting it. Splitting seems to get more difficult if the rounds sit for a while IME. Not a huge deal with hydraulics. As Brad said, short shelf life so I take fresh cut on the rare occasions I actually do get some. I did scrounge a dead 6” Shagbark limb a few years ago that was on the ground for probably a year and half +. It was mostly solid but full of bug tunnels.
FTG-05, took me awhile of scrutinizing to see what you did. Made the wedge about twice as tall/long? I have a 25-ton Countyline, wonder if it could handle me having that done, power/hp/torque-wise. With some tough rounds, like, oak, wonder how it would behave trying to drive that much wedge into the round. If it works, would seem to cut down on grabbing the hatchet! I used to have a heavy meat cleaver for that but that thing is lost, haven't seen it in a couple years! I bid on an antique one at an auction lately, didn't in it. Haven't welded in decades, would need to have a welder do it. And you made the base/anvil much bigger. I have thought of making something out of metal or wood for that.
I can't edit my 2nd post above but if I could I would do a fix. I just talked to my logger friend and he said that there IS a market for hickory as hardwood pulp around here but that's about its only market here. (And it doesn't pay very much, you'd best have some other trees to sell!) He said the opposite the other day, said that there is no market, don't know why the confusion. Maybe he's hard of hearing like me, lol. For the life of me, I could not figure out why it would not sell as pulp! As for using it for some types of lumber, even if you find a mill somewhere, the trucking can make it a no-go. Logging sure seems a tough business. Right now, there is a small operator logger who has been trying to log a tract here and I tell ya, you talk about a gigantic mess... he has gotten his skidders stuck a lot! Each time I go by there, it seems they are stuck. One of his hands told me, "It ain't nothin' but quicksand out there!" They have had to rent a trackhoe to get the skidders out at least twice now. He is certainly not going to make any money and you talk about tear up a piece of land, it is a disaster. My logger friend said it ain't quicksand, it's his own fault, that he had no business trying to cut that tract at this time, he should have known better, that it is simply low land and all this rain over the past few months, he should have never gone in there. Said he must've been desperate. Bottom line is, now he's made his plight worse. I tell ya, it'll be September before that tract dries out, if it does, and it will take a bulldozer to straighten out that land, what a mess. Those skidders looked like they'd be impossible to dig out, they were so stuck. Giant holes and ruts he made. The landowner must be absentee or a dummy. Should not have allowed access at this time! We had ten inches rain just this past week and that was AFTER he started, it was already a wet spring!
Another option I did once was just a cutter on top. Only need 1/4- 3/8” steel and set it back about an inch. By setting it back the round is splitting before it contacts so it doesn’t need to be as strong and it doesn’t put a lot of pressure on the slide plate. It’s just for cutting strings although the split doesn’t always run up 100% from the main wedge. It never bent but did help cutting strings.
I HATE splitting big hickory rounds its the worst stuff Ive ever split. Every single piece has to have about 100 strands chopped with a hatchet.
Hickory is the top dog of firewood in middle TN for heating and smoking. When bucking up a hickory I throw on a new chain and keep it sharp. I also keep my wedge on my splitter razor sharp. Do not let a hickory lay on the ground for long or it will attract bugs. And I keep my hickory top covered in storage.
Yes, I first welded another "blade" atop the original wedge, then 1/4"x2" strap up the sides to reinforce it and widen the wings out, so it would pop the wood both sooner and wider. Then I welded a horizontal 1/4'x2" along the back to hold it all together. I've never been disappointed with the results. Very very few rounds I can't split; mostly crochety +24" size. I just toss them on the burn pile and move on; nobody gots time fo that! Adding the 2" plate to the anvil means the wedge gets a lot closer and nearly sompletes the split, leaving very few strands to cut/separate to finish the splitting. A crap-ton easier over the old wedge/anvil!!! If there is anything more difficult than a +125 lbs round, it's an almost split but two-spagetti'd up half rounds weighing +125 lbs! Thanks,
