standing dead

[GaryR]

I have a hickory that didn't survive our drought. It was probably alive until last September. Is it bow worthy?
Gary

[Pat B]

Gary, I would not use standing dead anything for bow wood except maybe osage or yew. Hickory, like most whitewoods is quick to be infected by fungi after it dies and a standing dead tree continues to exchange moisture through the roots. Fungi loves moist wood. It will make good firewood or smoking wood though! 

[Eric Krewson]

Nope, hickory degrades very quickly, something to do with the high sugar content in the wood.

I tried to use some staves from a hickory that the wind blew over 6 months before I split it up. The staves were chalky and brittle.

About 6 or 7 beautiful hickories uprooted on the land I hunt last spring when the tornadoes came through. I cut two 7 ft logs out of one that was still alive with plenty of green growth, passed on several nice ones that had died because they had been down for several months, I thought of  my previous bad experience with downed hickory.

There was one monster downed hickory that still had green leaves up until the fall. I had all I could handle with the two large logs I brought home and left it alone. If it buds out this spring  I will stave it out, might nice stuff.

[Buckeye Guy]

Send it to me and I will be glad to waste my time trying to build bows out it!!!!!
Guy

[rossfactor]

Well, I say hold on a minute.  It hasn't touched the ground, standing dead?  I'd say, if there's a chunk that you can cut into, not the prime stave section, but some other part of the main trunk, dig in and see what it looks like.  If theres discoloration, fungus or insects, than sure don't waste your time, but....

I've heard/read about NA folks using standing dead wood.  Granted it was mostly softwood, stuff that's naturally repels to decay.  On the other hand I seen standing dead oak that was plenty sound stuff.  At least its worth investigating for the sake of science, (and our curious minds)!

Gabe

[Dictionary]

I cut a peice of maple today that i could feel had a lower moisture level but wasn't entirely dead i think. It was standing and i cut it and could feel by the weight of it there wasn't a lot of moisture in it. The inner bark still seemed quite wet though and there was only a few blemishes in the sapwood....we'll see. 

[soy]

You are out nothing trying it, but prepare to chace rings 

[Jude]

I ended up wasting half of a good hickory last year because I didn't make it back out to the woods in time.  I went out and chopped it down and took the first section out by hand on my lunch break, then never found the time to get back out there for a several weeks.  Got four staves out of the first section, and probably could have found 4-6 more on the rest, as it was about 20' tall   Left one stave of it leaning up in the garage, and my son tells me that some sort of borer got into it and ate up the wood below the bark.  I'll have to check it out when I get home, an maybe saw it into backings.  I've chased rings on dry hickory before and I'd rather split out a new stave than ever do it again.