Hickory?

[backhoeboogie]

I now know why people smoke meat with hickory - that's all its good for.

The gas company laid over a lot of old growth hickory in East Texas so I brought home a trailer load over Thanksgiving. Its all split and stacked now. A 35 foot row a little over 6 feet tall. It was pushed over a year ago so I thought it would be well seasoned. Forget that! Should I soak it in diesel or something?

I have now resorted to burning seasoned pecan and covering it with hickory sticks. All that hickory is now split into tiny pieces and it still just smolders.

Thankfully I have a lot of pecan and oak left. Maybe a summer here in this part of Texas will dry that wood out enough to do it some good.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Been a burning hickory wood all my life boogie, I being down so long is the problem. It soaked up water and held it. When it gets dried out it will burn hoter than hells fires.

 

[farmwriter]

I've also heard if you don't cut it up while it's green, you won't get it cut. Never tried it though.
But we use it for firewood and it does burn very hot.

 

[Angus Cowman]

Been a burning hickory wood all my life boogie, I being down so long is the problem. It soaked up water and held it. When it gets dried out it will burn hoter than hells fires.

I always burnt Hickory it is listed as the 2nd hottest wood to burn more BTUs per cord than oak or about anyother species except Locust if I recall correctly also hickory will not dry well at all if left in the tree it needs to be cut and split so it can cure out
also it makes some of the best wooden Handles for shovels,rakes and hammers you can get

 

[backhoeboogie]

Thanks for the good news folks. I've never burned it. It split nice and the pieces are small. It was a long way to haul it but it made no sense to let it just lay there and rot.

It looks like I'll make winter with the oak and pecan wood I had and just put on hickory pieces when I have a nice bed of coals. If that hickory cures out, I'm set for next winter.

 

[john250]

You split Hickory? You are a mighty mighty man, or you used the backhoe.
I have a piece of hickory on the back porch and when I get mad I go bash it with the maul. I haven't dented the thing in three years of trying.

 

[bigbull338]

yes hickory does burn hotter than heck.but does have to dry out.hackberry burns hotter than heck as well.but you really cant beat oak for a nice hot fire.

 

[backhoeboogie]

You split Hickory? You are a mighty mighty man, or you used the backhoe.
I have a piece of hickory on the back porch and when I get mad I go bash it with the maul. I haven't dented the thing in three years of trying.

I built another hydraulic splitter last year. It is powered off of the tractor.

 

[bear]

Shagbark hickory is the hottest of the hickories and the only thing hotter is hedge or osage orange.

Bear.

 

[Copenhagen & Shiner B]

I prefer post oak, blackjack oak, and pecan for barbecue wood. I like hickory, but it is tough to bust.

 

[Wewild]

hackberry burns hotter than heck as well.

Cut up a downed hackberry tree many years ago because it was in the way. We never had burned it before. It didn't pop embers at all. It was a good burning wood.

 

[backhoeboogie]

hackberry burns hotter than heck as well.

Cut up a downed hackberry tree many years ago because it was in the way. We never had burned it before. It didn't pop embers at all. It was a good burning wood.

No kidding. I have been pushing that stuff down (at the river) into piles and burning it. It is some nasty stuff.

I caught a lot of grief for pushing bois darc into piles and burning it too. People asked where it all went. When I told them they got upset.

 

[upfrombottom]

If you cut hickory or any other hard to split wood. Stand it up on the end with the bottom of the tree facing down. Let it set for a week or so and turn it over and split it. You will find it splits alot easier from bottom to top and with the moisture gathered in one end. A trick my dad taught me when I was big enough to pickup an axe. That way he didn't have to do it anymore. My experience with hickory is when it is dry you'll have to crack the door to to let some of the heat out.

 

[bigbull338]

all of our old fences are built using boris darc posts.we are very protective of boris darc post.

 

[Avalon]

thats actually spelled "bois d' arc" pronounced bodark. As Hickory goes I prefer it over other woods for smoking brisquet. We sometimes use mesquite and pecan. But yes Hickory is hard and it takes a while to season. Might try mixing it with charcoal or another easier burning wood till it gets enough age on it. But you cant go wrong when it comes to the smikey flavor it produces.

 

[cypressfarms]

HIckory and pecan make fine furniture wood. I've been woodworking and guitar making since I was 18 - someone had mentioned bodark (osage orange - whatever you want to call it) - but it's one of the best sounding woods there is. It's better than the expensive rosewoods that people pay an arm and a leg for. I'm always on the lookout for osage trees to cut down to mill. I'm trying to convince a man now to let me cut a tree down. Ashamed to see all of that potential lumber go to waste....

 

[backhoeboogie]

If I had only known Cypress. The wood is bright orange. Probably why they call it osage orange in other places. When the Cat bucket hits the trunk, the color lets me know that is what it is. The dang grape vine will killing everything. I found the pecans I could find and put survey ribbon on them. Come of the time I was down crawling through the thicket on my hands and knees. If it didn't have a ribbon, it was pushed out into a pile. The majority was elm.

I have been sparing the algerita trees as of late. It is becoming rare in these parts and old folks still want it for medicinal purposes.

That hickory is starting to burn. It probably had soaked up too much water in that wet East Texas climate.

 

[Angus Cowman]

Bois d'arc, Osage Orange and Hedge are all the same just depends on where you are at and who you are talking to
alot of people use them fr corner posts around here but I doze em in a pile and burn them
I prefer pipe corners

 

[JHH]

I have cut and split alot of hickory (shagbark) I didnt think it split to bad. Malberry (sp) trees they split hard and have a hot fire like hedge. We use hedge for corners and line posts.

 

[Calman]

Hickory is for sure one of the hard woods.Used to haul a lot of hickory and ash logs into crook and miller handle factory in Hicksville Ohio back in my log cutting days.Have cut ash logs that we're 48 inches at the stump.

Cal