Hickory Dish

[Ed Scolforo]

Here's a hickory dish, 11x2, finished with 3 coats Bush oil and Beall buffed. Inside it kinda looks like an artist took his brush and painted a few strokes. It's these kinds of discoveries that make woodturning so enjoyable. Sorry about the poor quality pictures.Thanks for looking.
Ed

[John Hart]

Pretty cool figure in there Ed.;) Nice lookin' platter bowl dish. Did you find the hickory difficult to turn?

[Ed Scolforo]

John, I can't wait to deplete my supply of hickory. I've made several salad bowls, which came out nicely, but I find this wood hard to manage. The darker wood is much harder than the lighter, and I've had a time getting the bowl gouge to cut even enough to not require alot of sanding. Maybe it's just my technique.
Ed

[John Hart]

Maybe it's just my technique.

Oh...I don't know about that Ed. Seems like Hickory is some pretty tough stuff...just like Ash. Comes off the blade pretty hot. Still....you've shown that it's worth it!:)

[Steve Schlumpf]

Very nice work Ed! I really like the grain!

[Joash Boyton]

Very nice, An overhead shot would be nice...


Is hicory in the pine family?

Joash

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Joash....If hickory is in the pine family and I don't think it is......it's the toughest member of the family. Traditionally....somebody correct me if I'm wrong.....it was used for making tool handles...axe handles....shovel handles......sledge hammer handles......hammer handles..it's also used to make cabinets.....beautiful wood.....tough wood....hard.....

[John Miliunas]

Ed, you're right about that "artist's touch" on the grain. 'Course, the artist on the end of the lathe tools has done a might righteous job on the piece, as well! :) (Note to self: "Self, stay away from Hickory!":o ) :cool:

[Jonathon Spafford]

Inside it kinda looks like an artist took his brush and painted a few strokes. It's these kinds of discoveries that make woodturning so enjoyable.

God does a good job on His trees... He's the artist we turners are the framers :)
Nice work I like it alot... and Joash, I don't think hickory is in the pine family... hickory ain't a conifer!

[John Hart]

Hickory is a tree of the genus Carya, including 17-19 species of deciduous trees with pinnately compound leaves and large nuts.
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Hickory Nuts

Of the 17-19 species, 12-13 are native to North America (11-12 in the United States, 1 in Mexico), and 5-6 species from China and Indochina.
Another Asian species, Beaked Hickory, previously listed as Carya sinensis, is now treated in a separate genus Annamocarya, as Annamocarya sinensis.
Hickory flowers are small yellow-green catkins produced in spring. They are anemophilous and self-incompatible. The fruit is a globose or oval nut, 2-5 cm long and 1.5-3 cm diameter, enclosed in a four-valved husk which splits open at maturity. The nut shell is thick and bony in most species, thin in a few, notably C. illinoinensis; it is divided into two halves which split apart when the seed germinates.

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Leaves

Species and classification
North America

Carya sect. Carya - typical hickories
Carya floridana Scrub Hickory
Carya glabra Pignut Hickory
Carya myristiciformis Nutmeg Hickory
Carya ovalis Red Hickory (treated as a synonym of C. glabra by Flora N. Amer.)
Carya ovata Shagbark Hickory
Carya ovata var. australis (syn. C. carolinae-septentrionalis) Southern Shagbark Hickory
Carya laciniosa Shellbark Hickory
Carya pallida Sand Hickory
Carya texana Black Hickory
Carya tomentosa (syn. C. alba) Mockernut Hickory

Carya sect. Apocarya - pecans
Carya aquatica Water Hickory
Carya cordiformis Bitternut Hickory
Carya illinoinensis Pecan
Carya palmeri Mexican Hickory
Asia

Carya sect. Sinocarya - asian hickories
Carya dabieshanensis Dabie Shan Hickory (may be synonymous with C. cathayensis)
Carya cathayensis Chinese Hickory
Carya hunanensis Hunan Hickory
Carya kweichowensis Guizhou Hickory
Carya poilanei Poilane's Hickory
Carya tonkinensis Vietnamese Hickory
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Shagbark Hickory
Uses

Hickory wood is extremely tough, yet flexible, and is valued for tool handles, bows (like yew), wheel spokes, carts, drumsticks, golf club shafts (sometimes still called hickory stick, even though made of steel or graphite), walking canes etc. and for punitive use as a switch or rod (like hazel), and especially as a cane-like hickory stick in schools. Baseball bats (also used as substitute paddle or even modified for physical punishment) were formerly made of hickory but are now more commonly made of ash. Hickory is also highly prized for wood-burning stoves, because of its high caloric content. Hickory wood is also a preferred type for smoke curing meats. In the Southern US, Hickory is popular for cooking barbeque, as hickory grows abundantly in the region, and adds flavor to the meat.
A bark extract from Shagbark Hickory is also used in an edible syrup that is similar to maple syrup, with a slightly bitter, smoky taste.
The nuts of some species are palatable, while others are bitter and only suitable for animal feed. Shagbark and Shellbark Hickories, along with the Pecan, are regarded by some as the finest nut trees.
When cultivated for their nuts, note that because of their self-incompatibility, clonal (grafted) trees of the same cultivar cannot pollenize each other. Two or more different cultivars must be planted together for successful pollination. Seedlings (grown from hickory nuts) will usually have sufficient genetic variation.

Stolen from Wikipedia :)

[Ed Scolforo]

Jonathon, I totally agree as to who the artist is. Joash, here's another lousy picture from an overhead view. You can see the filled wormhole and get a better idea of the high gloss on the wood. I know that hickory was used in wagon wheels, so it had to be tough stuff to endure those rides West. Thank you for your comments. Ed

[Paul Engle]

Ed, I use hickory chunks in my smoker and oh baby on ham and chicken , so don't throw the scraps away ,soak em water a little and toss em on the charcoal, I learned this method while stationed at Vint Hill Farms VA from a farmer outside Manassas that I bought beef and smoked pork from in the 70's. Oh I digress ....:eek: I like your bowls , classic form and the darker wood really sets off the " brush strokes ".:D Nice finish.... sometime i soak em in wostershire sauce and wrap in foil with a few holes , keeps em from flaming out. Do the same with your scraps , chips works great in the foil trick. I sometime make a bunch up a head of time as you never know when the BBQ bug will strike.:D

[Bernie Weishapl]

Ed that is a beautiful bowl. Nice work.

[Keith Burns]

Ed, that is an absolutely great bowl !! :) :) The fact that it is Hickory makes it even better. I turned one HF from Hickory and threw the rest out. Hickory will never find it's way into my shop again:mad:

[Barry Stratton]

WOW, Ed. I think stone would be easier to turn than hickory...... Beautiful piece!

[Dennis Peacock]

Great piece there Ed. Very nice wood and the grain it great!!!!

Here in the south, Hickory is referred to as the poor man's pecan as they look very similar and machine about the same. In some industries, hickory and pecan are interchangable when producing furniture.

[John Hart]

Here in the south, Hickory is referred to as the poor man's pecan as they look very similar and machine about the same.

And to give that name some real teeth:

The Pecan (Carya illinoinensis) is a species of hickory native to southeastern North America, from southern Iowa and Indiana south to Texas and Mississippi. It is a deciduous tree, growing to 25–40 m in height, and can be grown approximately from USDA hardiness zones 5 to 9, provided summers are also hot and humid. Pecan trees may live and bear nuts for more than three hundred years, and are one of the largest species of hickory [1]. The Pecan harvest for growers is traditionally around mid October and they grow wild in Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana and other southeastern states of the U.S. as well as northeast Mexico.
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The leaves are alternate, 40–70 cm long, and pinnate with 9–13 (rarely up to 17) leaflets, each leaflet 5–12 cm long and 2–6 cm broad. The flowers are wind-pollinated, and monoecious, with staminate and pistillate catkins on the same tree. The Pecan trees are mostly self incompatible, because most cultivars, being clones derived from wild trees, show incomplete dichogamy. Generally, two or more trees of different cultivars must be present to pollenize each other. The fruit is an oval to oblong nut, 2.6–6 cm long and 1.5–3 cm broad, dark brown with a rough husk 3–4 mm thick, which splits off at maturity to release the thin-shelled nut.
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The nuts of the Pecan are edible, with a rich, buttery flavor. They can be eaten fresh or used in cooking, particularly in sweet desserts but also in some savory dishes. One of the most common desserts with the pecan as a central ingredient is the pecan pie, a traditional southern U.S. recipe. Pecans are also a major ingredient in praline candy, most often associated with New Orleans.
In addition to the pecan nut, the wood of the pecan tree is also used in making furniture, in hardwood flooring, as well as flavoring fuel for smoking meats.
Pecans were one of the most recently domesticated major crops. Although wild pecans were well known among the colonial Americans as a delicacy, the commercial growing of pecans in the United States did not begin until the 1880s.[2] Today, the U.S. produces between 80% and 95% of the world's pecans, with an annual crop between 150-200 million kg (300-400 million pounds) [3]. Historically, however, the leading Pecan-producing state in the U.S. has been Georgia, followed by Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, they are also grown in Arizona. Outside the United States, pecans are grown in Australia, Brazil, China, Israel, Mexico, Peru and South Africa.

[Dennis Peacock]

And to give that name some real teeth:


Uh...John.....I already have "teeth". :p :D

[Ed Scolforo]

John, thanks for taking the time to furthur educate us. BTW, I have a hickory salad bowl on the lathe now. It has two piths and has taken me about six hours to finish sanding 80 grit:mad: . The rest SHOULD go easier:rolleyes: . Then it's one more bowl and I'm done with hickory for awhile.
Ed

[Jonathon Spafford]

Make sure we get pix of the next one... hickory is a tough wood, but your platter looks really nice!!!