Hickory useable?

[brian cammarata]

I made a post a few days ago about some hard maple that a buddy gave me that turned into firewood.

He also had a small amount of Hickory that in rough form looked fine, no holes, (usual end checks) etc.

Sending through jointer and some discoloration is starting to show through. Is this something to be concerned with i.e. diseased of some sort or just something a novice guy like me can live with. Hopefully the picture does it justice on what I am trying to convey

[Dennis Ford]

I would not use it for an axe handle or baseball bat but it should be fine for almost anything else.

[glenn bradley]

I have used pecan with a similar appearance without issue.

[brian cammarata]

I would not use it for an axe handle or baseball bat but it should be fine for almost anything else.

thanks for reply.....just starting to get into my own dressing of lumber and dont fully understand the differnce betweeen chararecter and full on issues

[kent wardecke]

Here's a laundry hamper kind of rotten me full of bugs. Celebrate the character or throw it in the fire wood pile. It's your shop402471

[brian cammarata]

yea I kept most of the product (well isolated) from the rest of my stash. I'm to cheap to discard

[Danny Hamsley]

It is gray stain, and oxidation reaction of the sugars in the wood from drying too slow in high humidity. Just discoloration, does not affect the wood properties.

[Art Mann]

It looks like spalting to me, which is a fungal stain. Some people leave logs in the wood yard long enough to develop this fungal growth before processing for the purpose of developing this look. The trick is to saw and dry the lumber after it has developed the appearance but before the process has compromised the integrity of the wood. Here is an explanation.

https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/techline/producing-spalted-wood.pdf

Not all species look appealing after spalting has taken place.

[Devin Ginther]

I was thinking along the lines of Art Mann. But it doesn't quite look like spalt that I'm use to seeing. We operate the Texas Urban Sawmill (http://txurbansawmill.com/) outside of Austin, Texas and our main specialty is pecan which is very, very similar to hickory. They are both in the Carya family (one bearing fruit, the other not). So I'm not use to seeing that type of "discoloration" in pecan. We probably have a few pictures on our website of spalted pecan.

Now, I do see that look in maple which is probably related to remark by Danny H. But hickory doesn't have the sugars like maple.

Spalting is black magic. Depending on when you cut into the log, it may look drastically different.

Either way, not an issue in terms of using the lumber for furniture. We focus on dead or fallen trees & that's still very solid wood. We would love the uniqueness in color. It is a good think IMO!

[Marshall Harrison]

If as others have said there is no issue with the wood integrity, then it all depends on if you or the customer likes the look of the spalted wood.

I like the looks but I would want the over all look to be a little darker. That is what stains are for.

[Danny Hamsley]

Pecan will gray stain just like maple here in Georgia. Pecan is a hickory. All hickories have nuts.