PA shagbark hickory

[Nathan Hawkes]

I got this wood from a friend, and it was almost an OOPS!! I got the bottom VERY thin while reverse turning it, so I put a little "patch" of 3/16" cherry veneer on it to stiffen it up a bit. There's a little CA glue squeezeout, but I don't care too much about it. Boy is hickory HARD! This had been dead for a few years, but still standing, so was quite wet still. No exaggeration, hickory takes about 10X the sanding to really get all the marks out. I went the full series--80,100,120,150,180,220,280,320, and 400 on this one. The wood was quite smooth, and almost as shiny before finishing! It takes a really good polish. I used some CA glue to stiffen up the knot inclusion. The orange-red line through the center is not ringshake, but a natural figure. I used a dental pick to get out the beetle holes--their leftovers were pretty hard, and required some pretty coarse scratching to remove.

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[Nathan Hawkes]

more pics!

http://sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=93264&stc=1&d=1217101002

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[Bob Hallowell]

Looks great Nathan, very thin.

Bob

[Steve Schlumpf]

Nathan - beautiful work! Great form, lots of charactor and exceptionally thin!

Hate to be a pain - but I have no idea of what size turning I am looking at. Could you post some measurements? Thanks!

[Nathan Hawkes]

Thanks Steve & Bob! Its not as thin as it looks. The piece is 12.5" wide, and just over 1/4" thick, except for the bottom......:D But, that's fixed now! Its remarkably heavy for how thin it is, though. Gotta love hickory! Its lost a fair bit of weight in the last week, but its still got some heft to it. I accidentally dropped it, and thought it was all over, but it just kinda went, "THUD", and didn't even put a dent in it. I'm going to give this to the farmers I got the wood from, and ask for some more!:cool::cool::cool:

[Mark Patoka]

That is really nice. I have a piece of hickory that I want to make almost the exact same thing from for my brother. Haven't tried turning hickory yet and not looking forward to working on a dried piece right from the start.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great looking piece Nathan. Form and finish look good. Well done.

[Chip Sutherland]

Hickory gets freakishly harder as it dries. Hickory turned wet is a better experience on the fun scale but still requires twice as much sharpening as you want to do to get the same result in other domestic woods. I gave up on some after it dried. Now I use it for sacrificial chucks but I forget until I try to part the stuff off bottom of my prize piece.