What is this wood?

[Chris Griggs]

Hey guys,

I just mentioned in my storage bench seat thread that I was making some dowels/pegs out of some unknown hard stringy nasty worm/bug eaten lumber that was mixed in with my inlaws walnut pile. I've been calling it hickory but really don't know what it is. It makes for good dowel stock though (and not much else). Adam C suggested that it might be pecan.

Here' s a better photo I just took (work is closed for snow!!!). Any thoughts on what it is?

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[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

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(Sorry. I remember seeing this on Wilbur's site and couldn't resist)

[Chris Griggs]

278856



(Sorry. I remember seeing this on Wilbur's site and couldn't resist)


:D I remember seeing that too. Funny!:D

[Warren Mickley]

It is not a great picture, but I would say hickory. Hickory is susceptible to worm damage, especially in the sapwood , and can have a reddish brown heartwood. We have five native species of hickory in Pennsylvania, plus an occasional planted pecan. This does not look like pecan. Our hickories can vary in hardness and density, coarseness of texture and color.

[Chris Griggs]

Thank you Warren. Yeah, my shop photos are never great. I didn't know we had 5 species here. I assumed it was hickory mainly because of the color variation, the stringiness, and the fact that my inlaws mentioned that they have some hickory on their property, as well as walnut and ash and oak (a recently fallen black oak tree is soon getting quarter sawn for me)

Anyway, good to know, thanks for the input.

[Michael Peet]

278856

(Sorry. I remember seeing this on Wilbur's site and couldn't resist)

Man that one always cracks me up. :D

Mike

[Adam Cruea]

It is not a great picture, but I would say hickory. Hickory is susceptible to worm damage, especially in the sapwood , and can have a reddish brown heartwood. We have five native species of hickory in Pennsylvania, plus an occasional planted pecan. This does not look like pecan. Our hickories can vary in hardness and density, coarseness of texture and color.

Good to know. It threw me that it has such a clear delineation between heart/sapwood. But, in the better light there, you can see the purple-ish tone of it.

It's amazing how much lumber can vary in a region; the hickory we get down here in Central Maryland has lighter sapwood and almost a honey-colored heartwood.

Though looking at the wood database:

http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/pecan/

The picture of it looks almost like it. It also kind of reminded me of the the small trees I cut up from my front yard. Either way, still in the hickory family.

Run a plane across it with the grain, then against the grain. If you get tearout that's like 1/16" deep, it's definitely a hickory member. :p Or just run a plane across it period, and if it chews up any steel, it's probably hickory. :p

I've noticed, too, that when I have a plane get warm on the sole, hickory and friends lets off a nice aroma, much like one smells during winter when fires are blazing.

As Koepke said, though. . .

However, this is just my opinion. YMMV.

:D

And I must say, Mr. Griggs. . .I am jealous. It almost makes me want to move up into PA to get some decent lumber on my property.

[Chris Griggs]

Well Adam, I'll tell you, I have indeed run my scrub/jack/fore planes against the grain on the stuff it does indeed tearout chunks. The chunks are big enough that they will jam the mouth. This is with a coarsely set plane, but not so coarse that it wouldn't work with the grain. Awful stuff to work with planes IMO...of course, my pieces aren't FAS, just a tree from the property that got milled up years ago; all the knots and worm damage don't make it any easier to work. The areas that are straighter grained are still tough but much more workable. I'll just keep using it for dowels and random shop things. Serves a good purpose in those cases. I'll need to pay attention to the smell next time I plane it:)

PA is GREAT, and my in laws just happen to have a nice wooded piece of property out in Bucks County about 1.5 hours north of Philly, and when they have the occasional decent tree fall they are smart enough to take a look and see if the wood is worth milling. Right now there is a huge pile of big wide Ash log cuts in there back yard...its turners fantasy. Really I should get setup for splitting/chopping/hewing green wood, but for now I'll just take what they get milled and sticker it to dry.

I'm in the city so I have NO trees/lumber on my property, but good lumber isn't too far away

[Chris Griggs]

..and I see what you mean Adam, it does look a lot like that photo of pecan you linked to (I don't think Pecan grows here though?) Of the other hickories it looks the most like shagbark http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/shagbark-hickory/#pics (in the woodatabase photo's anyway, I have no idea how representative those are)

What ever it is, its definitely in the hickory family.

[Adam Cruea]

I was going to go with either pecan or shagbark as well.

My bench looks like it was mostly made with Pignut Hickory and Nutmeg Hickory. Beautiful stuff. And if you can get a nicely sharp BD plane with the chipbreaker set very close and take a fine shaving of it to where it's smooth, it ends up planing gorgeously. Just avoid that knot. Want to see A2 crumple? Hit that knot you've got with a plane blade.

And yes, be careful running a scrub/jack across the stuff. I actually had my scrub plane set for too heavy a cut and clogged it very easily. I also rammed a splinter of it into my hand. Walnut? Meh. Pine? Meh. Maple? Meh. Hickory splinter? No thanks. The stuff doesn't break and you can pull out like an inch long splinter, easy.

And as I've said, it can get sharp enough to cut. When I was making my bench, I had to lean over the apron to do some planing and I didn't have the chamfer on it yet. I ended up with cuts on my stomach.

Gorgeous stuff, just takes a *lot* of patience. It's not a wood you can hog easily.

[Chris Griggs]

Yep, that describes this stuff exactly (well except for the splinter, thankfully I haven't gotten bitten by it yet). The chunks that tear out with too coarsely set of a plane are crazy. Clogging a scrub is pretty nuts. Planes fine with lighter cuts but hogging down sucks. It takes forever to get a rough sawn surface flat and smooth..I don't enjoy it.

I did do a couple small things with the clearer areas and it does look nice with a finely planed surface, but mine is all so work eaten that I can't really make anything nice out of it...which is fine, as you know I'm more than happy to stick with cherry and walnut for just about everything.