Shagbark Hickory, is it worth the hassle

[Bad E]

Around my place the toughest splitting wood is Beech. I used to call it son of a Beech.

 

[toolfreak]

I have always split hickory manually, I think it splits OK for me but then again, I'm an animal! I use it to heat my shop and for smoking meat. Makes the shop smell nice and I don't use as much as I do Elm which is more pleantyfull. Make Deer meat taste good too! I get as much as I can find!

 

[day52]

Shagbark is great to burn...season at least a year. I wouldn't try to split it without a hydraulic splitter. Mine is only 24 ton, and I've not yet found one I can't split. One bad thing about Shagbark is if it is a loner tree, the bark will pick up a lot of wind blown sand and grit. That can be nasty to cut sometimes. It will really do a job on your chains. Woods trees are not the same. Also forest trees seem to have a bit straighter grain to them. One problem around here is what we call powder post beetles. If they get into the wood the can reduce it to dust fairly quickly. So if you take the wood and decide to let it age a bit, stack it out in the weather. The little varmints don't seem to like that as well as in a wood shed or barn. I just put some on the fire a few minutes ago.

 

[CNYCountry]

Around my place the toughest splitting wood is Beech. I used to call it son of a Beech.

Beech is easy. It's Elm that's miserable.

 

[Bad E]

Beech is easy. It's Elm that's miserable.

I don't think I have ever split elm. Not many elms left around here.

 

[CNYCountry]

I don't think I have ever split elm. Not many elms left around here.

Yeah, we had a couple of 20" dead ones here from the disease, had been standing dead for a few years, long enough to dry them out but not long enough for them to start to break down. It was like cast iron, you could hit it as hard as you could (coming up off the ground) with a 12lb monster maul and it would just leave a little dent. Unreal. I had to rip them with the chainsaw.

 

[Bad E]

Yeah, we had a couple of 20" dead ones here from the disease, had been standing dead for a few years, long enough to dry them out but not long enough for them to start to break down. It was like cast iron, you could hit it as hard as you could (coming up off the ground) with a 12lb monster maul and it would just leave a little dent. Unreal. I had to rip them with the chainsaw.

Is it springtime up in Remsen too? About four years ago I almost bought the old Otter Lake Rail station. Great country up your way.

 

[CNYCountry]

Is it springtime up in Remsen too? About four years ago I almost bought the old Otter Lake Rail station. Great country up your way.

I guess I managed to drag this completely off topic, but yeah, we only have about 8 inches of the hard styrofoam snow that you can walk on as of this morning. It has been nice, I have had a chance about once a month where the roof is clear so I can walk on it to clean the chimney. The Adirondack Scenic Railroad runs along the east border of our property, cool to see them go by on summer days. It IS beautiful country, I only grew up a few miles west of there but still appreciate it every day...

 

[buzz sawyer]

I was offered a shagbark hickory tree. About 5 or 6 truckloads, already cut up. I tried to split one of the largest of the logs from the base w/ a hand maul, and I felt like I was trying to split concrete.
Is Shagbark Hickory a good burning wood, like Oak? Is it known to be hard to split?
Thanks:bang:

Hickory's resistance to splitting is the reason it's so popular for tool handles.

As for firewood, all wood gives about the same heat, pound for pound. Denser woods give more heat per given volume. As I recall, hickory is right up there with white oak, rock maple, apple, locust. Smells real nice too!

 

[HickoryNick]

There are two types of wood I like the best for BBQ and burning in the fireplace. Hickory and Red Oak.

Hickory I like the best because it seems to burn longer and put off a lot of good heat. Not to mention the great taste it gives pork.

If nothing else, buy it and sell it to a local BBQ joint for a little extra.

 

[046]

just tried manually splitting elm, hitting it hard with a 10lb+ maul. bounces right off, barely making a dent.

one tuff wood to split!

 

[Rotax Robert]

Some one here had a name for it but I will borrow it, concretus rebarus

Rotax

 

[HickoryNick]

Wood Grenade works great on splitting some wood. I've used a lot of wedges before and this one really does the trick.

I split through some twisted poplar that had four 3" knots in it. Green I might add.

 

[Gark]

Shagbark Hickory, is it worth the hassle
It would be worth the hassle to me if not too far away to transport, but your mileage may differ. Tough to split, yes- but that affords more opportunity to use the saw for making odd-shaped pieces like the attached pic. These are "siberian elm" that even a mechanical splitter couldn't split but still they warm the house. Worth it even if you have to saw the rounds into disks which MAY split easier.
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