Question about hackberry

[Roger Chandler]

I have a piece of hackberry I picked up at our club meeting on the 5th, and I have never turned any hackberry before, and it is about the right size for one of my boxes for this upcoming demo. I think this is still a little green........have no idea how long it has been cut.

Can anyone tell me how stable hackberry is if turned a bit green, and does anyone have pics of what it looks like when turned? I sure would appreciate any postings and information if you have it.......thanks a bunch!

[Darryl Hansen]

I don't particularly like hack berry but it does seem to be stable. One of the problems I have with it is that the three logs I have worked with all have the same iritating characteristic. When it dries after an alcohol soak it tends to have ridges in the surface. The rings are very hard and the soft stuff tends to shrink so the surface is bumpy. Hard to describe. Also the color is rather blah. It does tend to have dark spots that show up randomly throughout a light background. Very stable and works fairly easily but is on the hard side.. One piece I have had been on the ground and spalted heavily. I turned it into a shallow elongated bowls that is spectacular.

[Jamie Donaldson]

Hackberry is one of my frequently used woods, looks like ash but is actually an elm family member. I do some artificial spalting that enhances the bland appearance, and it can be dyed and stained with some attention to the open grain. It's fairly stable when drying, so long as it's not drippin' an spittin' wet when turned!

[Roger Chandler]

Thanks Darryl and Jamie..........that info on its stability is what I was after..........also the info on dye is interesting also....might have to give that a go with a box if I use this blank [likely!]

[Thomas Canfield]

I have never turned HB endgrain wet, but sidegrain does have distortion. I would guess that there would be distortion and problems with a tight fitting box, but a loose fit might work. Make a one handed removal lid - no two hand as required for "pop". For a demo, it should work since distortion will take some time.

[Marty Eargle]

I've turned a few pieces of Hackberry that were soaking wet, both to around 1/8" thick. The all had a fair amount of distortion considering how much drying they did after turning. I've not had a piece crack or check on me though, which I was very thankful for. Not a fan of the natural color of the wood, but as far as working with it, not much to complain about.

[Jon Nuckles]

Roger,

I cut and rough turned my first hackberry about a month ago, but it was more crackberry than hackberry. Two of my roughouts were about 17 -18 inches in diameter and I left them about 1 and 1/2 inches thick. The thickness was consistent except for the tenon. They turned easily and I had high hopes of some pretty large bowls in a few months. I unwrapped them to check on them this week, and this is a sample of what I saw:

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They were wrapped in brown paper with a waxy surface and were still quite wet when I unwrapped them. In fact, they had turned a bit green with some kind of growth on the surface. The cracks were all on the outer surface, although a couple went all the way through one of the roughouts. I remounted the other one and turned away all the cracks just for the fun of it. What I was left with was lampshade thin and not good for anything, but it was fun getting there. I have two other hackberry roughouts that have not cracked (yet), but they are still a long way from dry. I know you use a dna soak, and maybe that will help. Maybe I just got a bad batch. The tree I cut them from had split at the crotch of a two trunk tree, and I took the trunk that fell. I didn't take anything near the crotch, where there was some rot, but maybe there was some damage that wasn't visible. Anyway, good luck with yours and with your demo.

[Dennis Ford]

I have turned quite a bit of hackberry and like it but it is fairly bland unless spalted. It does move quite a bit while drying, it is slightly less resistant to cracking than elm.

[Dale Winburn]

Roger,

The hackberry was cut more than 1 1/2 years ago, and cut into turning blanks with the ends sealed maybe 8 to 12 months back.

Looking forward to your demo.

Regards,
Dale

[Roger Chandler]

Thanks Jon and Dennis............after hearing you both on this...........I think hackberry is not a good candidate for a lidded box. I need something that does not move a lot!