Workability of Hickory

[Johnny Fischer]

I am going to build an entertainment center for the family.
With that said, I would like to use maple but am leaning towards Hickory to same myself some money.
My supplier emailed me stating Hickory is very difficult to work with.
My question is why?

[Tony Cox]

I have a little bit of hickory also and have never worked with it. Would be interested to hear thoughts from others on this subject.

Tony

[Richard M. Wolfe]

I have never worked any of the hickories strictly speaking but have worked a lot of pecan, which is in the hickory family and the two are always lumped together in terms of working, etc. It's a pretty coarse grained wood but in terms of machining, sanding and finishing works I really have no gripes with it. Mainly it's tough and

Hard
Hard
Hard
Hard

And did I mention hard? :D

I imagine true hickory is the same way, considering its traditional usages as tool handles, etc. But as long as you have good carbide cutters I'd rather work the hard woods than the soft ones.

[Stephen Edwards]

It's hard alright.......hard as Chinese Arithmetic!

[Richard Wolf]

I have worked with Hickory. I found that it is very prone to spit out. Like chip out, but large fiberious spits when working an edge. You must pay attention to grain direction. Light cuts and sharp tools.

Richard

[Mike Henderson]

I've worked with pecan (a type of hickory) and have no complaints. It works differently than, say, maple but once you get accustom to working with it, you'll do fine. For pecan, there's a color difference between the heartwood and the sapwood (sapwood is lighter) so think about what you want the piece to look like and choose your wood accordingly.

Mike

[In support of doing it in hickory (or pecan), maple changes color over time, going yellow/orange, which I don't like - my opinion of maple furniture is that it looks worse over time. Pecan holds it's color better.]

[David DeCristoforo]

Actually, if you have ever worked with ash, it's very similar. Hickory/pecan is a bit "stringier" than ash but otherwise pretty close.

[Burt Waddell]

I've worked ash, hickory, and hard maple. Compared to hickory both the hard maple and ash work like soft wood. Brad nailers that have no problem at all with ash and hard maple, will bounce on hickory

[Carl Middleton]

John, I have a woodmizer portable saw mill and I have found that if you quarter saw the wood it cuts nice and strait and is very stable Forget about flat sawn It cuts wavey and wont stay strait. Make sure the wood is quarter sawn and it pretty easy to work with.

[Matt Ocel]

Johnny -

Its like nailing into cast iron.
It splits.
It splinters.
Its hard on bits and blades.

But I think its beautiful!!

[Bryan Berguson]

I've worked with lots and lots of hickory. I have a garage apartment (700 sq ft) and a 2000 sq ft house. Both have hickory floors and are trimmed completely with hickory. The garage has hickory cabinets and I've built o good number of projects for the house with it too. I love the wood but it sure can give you a workout. I like to wear tight fitting leather gloves when jointing and ripping to avoid deep and plentiful splinters. When routing, I had to do a lot of climb cuts to avoid split out. Once it starts splitting, it can go deep and quickly ruin a board. It will burn if you're not careful but it's not as bad as cherry. If you have access to a wide belt or drum sander, use them. Leave knot holes in if you like them and fill with clear, slow setting epoxy. 5 minute epoxy sets too fast and the bubbles won't float out. Use all the "wood movement" skills you have. It can move alot!

It's hard and heavy but is one of the mose beautiful woods there is. You'll love the look when you are done and you will most definately appreciate the work you put into it. ;)

Bryan

[Joe Chritz]

I am bidding on a Hickory kitchen right now. I have done a few smaller jobs with it and it isn't really that much harder to work than maple. When you add in the fact that grain matching is nearly impossible with hickory because of all the color variations it may even be easier.

Watch grain direction on all operations.

A shaper/power feed and climb cutting will make milling stiles/rails a thing of beauty with Hickory.

I looks fantastic with just a clear finish but like maple is more picky on perfect sanding technique.

Joe

[Dave MacArthur]

I'd love to see any project photos of Hickory... I'm considering it for a new kitchen myself. Does anyone have comments on the Hickory prebuilt cabinets sold at HD?

[Paul Ryan]

You will probably need to buy extra wood due to split outs that will occur when working with hickory. I have built a kitchen out of hickory (cabnets, and trim) it is so increadibly hard. It makes hard maple seem like pine. And sanding is so difficult. But I think it is one of the most beautiful woods if you like heavy grains and different variations. I am in the middle of building 2 rocking chairs out of it for my porch.

[Bill Kesler]

I just built a hope chest for my granddaughter out of hickory. I can tell you that it is a very dense, hard wood. You will need a sharp saw and if your doing any planing or drum sanding it will take more time as you'll have to take very light cuts. That being said, in MHO it machines well and takes stain beautifully. as soon as I can I'll post a picture.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

Interesting to know about hickory vs. pecan. With pecan I've not had the problems with splits or the fibrous 'spits' mentioned. There is a place here in town that makes pretty elaborate horse trailers - the kind with sleeping quarters, showers, kitchens, etc. and a friend who talked to them about their 'cabinetry' was told that one of the woods they use they called 'sap' and was told it's hickory. I guess it's the sapwood.

[John Grabowski]

I helped a friend of mine make molding out of hickory...I had to increase the psi on my finish nailer up to the limits of blowing out the O-Rings to nail it in place. It required twice as many runs on the router to profile. It is very pretty but extremely dense. It is worth the effort, but I think you would be better off making out of maple for the frame and using a birch plywood.

Just my 2 cents,

John G

[Pat Germain]

I'm currently building a workbench. The top and clamps will be hickory. Thus far, I've cut and squared only a few pieces. I'm not a very experienced woodworker, yet I had no trouble crosscutting, jointing, planing or ripping this stuff. I really like it!

[Troy Donson]

The wife wanted a bookcase with, uh, character...

She talked me into using Naughty Hickory. I used 10/4 ash for the posts and birch ply for the shelves and back. The top, side panels, rails, shelf fronts, etc are Naughty Hickory

Beside the microscopic splinters, the saw blades it wore to nubs, the years of sanding it took, she liked the way it came out. She specifically said she wanted random colors and patterns (thank goodness). Based very loosely on the NYWS Mesquite bookcase plans... I am still working on the doors, they should be done some day before I retire in 20 years or so...:rolleyes:

BTW before you correct my spelling of the word "naughty", once your wife stands next to you and says "But I don't like that board either - it doesn't have any knots or splits in it!!" you will agree with the spelling!! Trust me.

[J. Z. Guest]

From what the books say, true hickory is much more dense and hard than pecan.

So far, oak, ash, and maple have been plenty hard. Why mess with hickory if the extra hardness isn't needed? An entertainment center does not require the hardness of hickory. The grain is similar to Ash, which is easier to work and less expensive. (but can also be splintery)

As others have said, if you have to buy extra wood to account for splitting and whatnot, are you really saving money?

[Richard M. Wolfe]

Just out of curiosity I checked online and found several listings of the Janka hardness scale. It lists hickory/pecan-1820, hard/sugar maple-1450, white oak-1360, ash-1320, and red oak-1290.

For what that's worth.

It also lists mesquite-2345. Maybe it's regional in the trees, but, as Justin Wilson would say, I gay-ron-tee my pecan is harder than mesquite. Maybe a bit has to do with the 'toughness' of pecan, but it is harder. I gay-ron-tee. :D