hickory for timber?

[.netDude]

A couple years ago, a timber consultant told me that 5 or so acres of tall, straight hickory that I have (not a pure stand, lots of other stuff mixed in) isn't really worth anything and that I'd have trouble trying to sell it. Is that still the case? Is it worth anything more than firewood?

[stranger]

probably only about 3 bucks for a six ounce baggie full of chips on Ebay to be used in a smoker, which might make each tree worth a couple thousand dollars plus in your spare time, depending on the size of the tree
I wouldn't let anyone within 100 yds of it unless they had their hands in their pockets.. hickory handled hammers,pick axes, splitters, planks to smoke salmon on ect.
I'd start a business and everytime i cut a tree, i'd plant another one.

[Ramblin Wreck]

Wish I could swap a pine or sweet gum tree for a hickory any day. Hickory makes great wood for cabinets in addition to the uses stranger noted.

[beaglady]

Besides making beautiful cabinets, I've seen it used for wide board flooring. If I had your trees, that's what I'd use it for.

[MELOC]

i can't wait to visit a friend's new home. he used hickory as flooring and paneling and i hear it looks awesome.

[agmantoo]

Let me share a little info that is not widely known. In the high end of the hardwood industry where the big bucks go for the more exotic woods is a little "secret" if I may reference it as that. Venture on down to the hardwood dealer and price pecan. It can easily go for a couple or more thousand dollars per thousand board feet. Within the hardwood industry it is permissible to substitute Hickory for Pecan or vice versa! You just need to find the right market for you logs. Here is a pic of the cabinets in my home. Hickory or Pecan?

[goatsareus]

to me it looks like hickory and does not look like pecan...

my gut level feeling was good luck!!. but some good ideas have been suggested, guess I cursed hickory too much in my youth!

[beowoulf90]

I had the same problem years ago with a black walnut stand, no one wanted to buy the wood. So what was down I either turned into boards or fire wood and left the rest standing.. The rest is still standing... I only use what is down..

[stranger]

Originally Posted by beowoulf90

I had the same problem years ago with a black walnut stand, no one wanted to buy the wood. So what was down I either turned into boards or fire wood and left the rest standing.. The rest is still standing... I only use what is down..

black walnut is worth big money in most places, furninure, gun stocks ect.

[ErinP]

How 'bout a handful of chokecherry bushes?

That's our "timber stand."

[poppy]

Black walnut and pecan are worth a bunch here, or at least were a few years ago. I have a farmer friend who sold 1 very large straight black walnut tree for $2000.00 to a mill that makes veneer. We put a hickory floor in our family room last year. A couple elderly sisters run a sawmill near us and cut and finish all kinds of wood into flooring. Hickory was higher per foot than some other woods. One inch thick and tongue and groove hickory flooring ( finished) for a 25 by 13 room was just under $2000.00. Very pretty floor.

[Shadow]

Once they are cut they both look the same. Both can be used for bar-b-que, same great flavor. Both can be sawn into lumber and are pretty but both have the same problems. Both do not season well air dry and you will lose a lot to splitting and warpping and twisting. That is the reason for the higher cost. We have used both in our wood working and find we loose about half. As a result we use it for fire wood. Remember its just our personal experence but remember we have been working with wood for almost 90 years between us. Its fire wood.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

shag bark hicory is the most machinable wood , the most dence domestic wood available

it is so dence it actulay sinks in water , but very slowly

i would say 4 dollars a board foot is plenty fair for holesale , maybe a touch cheap

[vicker]

At the mill I work at, we buy hickory for ties. Up untill this spring we would re-sale the butt loggs (12inces and up on the small end) to others for hickory verneer for around 1.50 bft. No one is buying right now, no one. We are cutting them all into ties. The lumber is beautiful, but hard as heck and heavy. I want to make my floors of hickory. The lumber industry is in a very deep slump right now, but should begin to pick back up in the next year or two.

[vicker]

its pretty dang dense, but not as dense as prersimmon (north american ebony). Thats what I am going to make my counter tops out of.

[HomesteadBaker]

Originally Posted by beaglady

Besides making beautiful cabinets, I've seen it used for wide board flooring. If I had your trees, that's what I'd use it for.

Hickory is what we were running on the line today at work, and it is beautiful as tongue and groove flooring. (I work in a plant that makes hard wood flooring)

Kitty

[mtman]

my guess is with the small dark spots id say pecan we just put hickory caninets in our new house it has some long dark notty spots

[Old Vet]

You can have the most expensive wood growing on your property and it will be worth nothing on a commercial basis unless there is a local market for it. There are several varieties of Hickory and some of it is good for one thing and not used for others. The only reality that most of us understand is to call a Forester and get his opinion. This may be a State forestry commission people or a private forester.

[PlowGirl]

Hickory and Pecan are both members of the Walnut family. That's why they look so similar.

[texican]

What a hickory trees worth in the woods and what it's worth in the finished product are two veryyyy different things.

I've got probably a thousand board feet or so cut in 7/8" thick planks in the barn... hope to use them for paneling or for cabinets, in the future...

Next hickory I have cut I want to have some 2 x 2 and 4x4 stock cut, for handles and whatnot...