Best use for hickory?

[outdoorgirl]

What would be the best use (or at least a good use) for hickory wood?

I've got a stack that I bought years ago originally for use as bows, but is no good. Some is matched and pre-cut, about 1.5inches square by about 3ft, some is in rough slabs about 3 ft long but anything up to about 2 inches by 3inches.

Could this be turned into spoons, 'turned' on a lathe for something useful (what?), or put to some other use? I don't really want to turn it into wood chips for smoking meat (although I'd be happy to use the shavings and dust for that!)...

Thanks!

 

[Tantalus]

whisky barrels????

no but seriously, it is fairly straight grain and nice and inflexible hence its use in hammer and axe handles

get hold of an adze and a spokeshave and have some fun

personalised hatchet handles sound like a great idea too

Tant

 

[C_Claycomb]

Why isn't it any good for bows? Is it rotten, full of knots? Is the fibre stepped through? You can get away with a lot with hickory for bow making.

Other than bows and excellent tool handles, and footing arrow shafts so that they don't break so easily on field shoots?? The bits you have might be a bit on the small side for some of the uses that hickory can be put to, but I would have thought that out of tool handles, agricultural implements, furniture, ladders, dowels, and building materials you could find something better than wood chips :shock:

At the very least I might be interested in some to use for non-bending bow parts, handle risers and siyahs come to mind.

 

[tomtom]

making a long bow!! :biggthump

 

[arctic hobo]

Superb as tool handles, equally superb in boats, but it doesn't sound like you could squeeze a keel out of the sizes you have there! Certainly don't chip it, it's quite a valuable wood - sell it if you must. I would make plates or a chopping/utility board of it if I had some, but that's because I need some!

 

[Snufkin]

Even if the grain is seriously violated you could still get a bow out of it if you backed it with a decent hickory or bamboo backing strip.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Linen cloth backing would also work for getting a bow out of marginal wood.

 

[Buckshot]

How about a bowl?
You might need to glue a few pieces together to get the correct width...

Cheers

Mark

 

[outdoorgirl]

All good ideas, guys...

I'll try and get some pics done so you can see what I'm talking about...

I have so much of it that I'm bound to sell some off, but would like to see what can be done with it first - Andy has just bought a wood turning lathe but I couldn't see any pratical use for the 1.5" square lengths once turned; unless he was going to make fancy stool legs or something!

I'm sure some of it will be big enough for a few axe handles - as I say, I'll do some pics and you can see for yourselves...