Bench Top

[Brian Triplett]

Hey gang,
I'm working on my new work Bench, and a guy at work told me he had some hickory that he would give me at a discounted price. My question is to you is that do you think hickory would make a good bench top? I know it's hard, baseball bats, handles, etc. I just have never heard of it being used as bench top. Thanks for your time.

Brian

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Brian, I've seen bench tops out of it and from all reports it makes a good top. Maple would be better because hickory moves a little more, is a little springier, and is an open grain compared to maple, but could you tell the difference in use? Probably not.

[Dev Emch]

Hickery is not a bad choice. The trick, and this applies to all woods by the way, is to laminate the slap from strips or billets. Cut these out of our stock as say 1x2s or 1x3s. Lay all billets on the ground and make sure the grain is running in all the same direction... i.e. no reversals. Then flip them 90 degrees on end and glue them together. The top i a virtual quarter sawn top so it will hardly move in comparision to using them flat. Also, any movment will be up and down and not lengthwise. So massively reduced movement and the movement is orthogonal to your top's dimensions. Perfect.