Hickory backing

[Marc St Louis]

As you plane Bamboo down you can easily tell that the inner "wood" is much softer than the outer.  The outer planes more like the dense tropicals than Hickory which leads me to think that the density of the outer wood is more like 1

[elk country rp]

i love hickory so much that i haven't been motivated to try boo yet!

[hedgeapple]

I like to do things myself so I can get what I want (Or, more accurately get what I think I want haha).  I have a friend who has a saw mill.  He will cut anything, any way I want.  Here's what I think I want to make hickory backing strips.  PLEASE CHIME IN WITH SUGGESTIONS.

I plan to cut a hickory log and ask him to cut a 2 inch wide section out of the middle of the log, then cut a 2 inch wide section out of the center of the half pieces.  Then I'll cut those 2 inch wide planks into 2x2's that I will use to cut 1/4x 2 inch strips for roughed out strips (pre-planing) to make 1/8x2 inch backing strips.  This should give me full quart sawn OR plain cut strips (as Marc has suggested) for backing strips, depending on which way I orient the 2x2  to cut the 1/4x2.  AM I CORRECT?  Are there any things I need to be concerned with such as vertical grain orientation?

Here's drawing of my plan.  I hope I'm not hi-jacking this thread too much.


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[Badger]

    Hedge, I found a saw mill in Mississippi that would cut a log up for me the way I wanted. I did it almost exactly as you sugested except I took a 4" cut down the center then a 4" cut down the center of the two halves. I ended up with 8 each 6' lng 4"X4". I then took them home and cut them into backing strips on my bandsaw. I took about 100 backing strips out of it and several edge grain board staves and a few regular staves. he only charged me $4.00 for each board. $32.00 total. shipping them home was almost $200.00.

[hedgeapple]

Badger, thanks for your responce.  Now, I know my plan is workable.  I can see where 4x4 would be less prone to warping.  But, I don't have access to a good bandsaw.  I will be cutting them on a table saw, so I'm thinking 2x2 will be easier to work with. But I'll check the grain before I reduce them too much.  It might be that I need 2x3 to have room to lay the grain out straighter down the limbs.

My friend, Brian, bought his sawmill 10 years ago so he could cut wood on his farm to build a cabin.  So I'm pretty lucky, all it will take is a 5 hour drive round trip and probably a case of beer.    Oh, and I'm making a bow for him.  Last fall I asked Brian if he had any ironwood and/or dogwood on his farms that I could cut.  I told him about what I was looking for.  Two weeks later he calls to tell me he has 2 ironwood logs and a dogwood log for me.  So, he might even fall a tree for me.  Gotta love friends.