Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Badger on June 08, 2007, 04:12:44 pm
-
Do any of you know anthing about white hickory? I have a wood source in Mississippi, that told me he is getting ready to saw up some white hickory logs and was wanting to knw if I could use it for backings, he says the white hickory has no heartwood and is white all the way through, thanks for any info on this. Steve
-
Steve, Get a botanical mane. I have never heard of white hickory. Must be a caloquial term(common mane). Pat
-
hmmm, never heard of white hickory either but I have seen hickory that didn't have a typically darker heartwood area.
-
I have seen a lot of hickory in mississippi that had an unussually thick sapwood, maybe just a variation of a common hickory. My wood man refers to it as white hickory and says it is on the rare side. He doesn't know a botanical name for it. Steve
-
White hickory is Carya tomentosa.
Never heard of it myself.
-
I can't be sure, but I beleive someone had mentioned "white hickory" at a local lumberyard and woods dealer. He said it was an uncommon species, but was known for coming out with clear, all white boards throughout the tree. I am pretty sure it behaved just like normal hickorys (shagbark and smooth bark), if only makes more color coordinated boards :P.
-
Yes I have, I've used it. Its another name for mockernut hickory. We have it up here, and yes the heartwood is very light and hard to tell from sapwood. Its a smoothbark and is nearly as good as pignut, which is the consensus favorite of bowyers. Mine was great in tension and so-so in compression, I had a couple of times where I got chrysals on the belly.
http://forestry.about.com/library/silvics/blsilcartom.htm
Google is a wonderful thing.
-
I don't prefer pignut over shagbark despite it's reputation for flight bows, and I've heard the same from certain a big named crumudgen. Frets to easy. Haven't tried mockernut but with hickories there is a lot of grey areai n properties between subspeciies and specimens. I'd say a good clear specimen is at least as important for backings. I'd say go for it, and have some belly cores cut too.
-
"Hickory nuts are a minor source of food for ducks, quail, and turkey (7,21)."
I usually just scan these pages. There's a lot of extraneous stuff. But this caught my eye. I want to see a bobwhite quail each a hickory nut. It's big as their heads!
-
Heck,I'd like to see a turkey eat one.The only thing I've seen eat them is squirrels and hogs.
-
Mockernut responds very well to heat treating.
-
The Deer around hear eat the shagbark nuts but not the pignut, only the squirls like them....I'll stick with using hickory for backing strips, there are manny better choices for belly wood... :P
-
As Lennie said, white hickory is another name for mockernut (C. tomentosa), which is very variable, and has recently been renamed as C. alba. It is probably actually more of a complex of related species and subspecies. I have cut mockernut that was white nearly all the way through, but some has a thick, reddish-brown heartwood. The mockernut here makes excellent bow wood. I'd like to see quail eat hickory nuts, too lol. The main critters around here that eat hickory nuts are bears, wild boar and squirrels. Bears love 'em, I've seen places in the woods where a bear had sat down on it's butt under a hickory tree and just raked the nuts up. When I used to bear hunt with hounds, the first places we would check for a bear track were white oak groves and hickory nut ridges. Actually, I like hickory nuts pretty well myself.
-
Would any of you have a sight I could refer my sawmill to so he could see exactly what we look for in how to cut up a log for a bowyer. The more pictures the better, I have been trying to explain by telephone but not sure he really understands exactly what I mean. Steve
-
According to USDA info, just about every species of hickory is called White Hickory somewhere
http://www.windsorplywood.com/nam_hardwoods/hickory.html
Dave
-
Steve,
I haven't used it before. Let me know what you think. I have used shag bark, shell bark, and pecan. Pig nut has never shown up at the lumber yard here. I have heard pig nut is more elastic in compresson, but have never had a chance to try it. If your white hickory has that dense waxy luster where you have cut it, it can't be too bad.
I have done OK with shellbark and shagbark for flight bows.
Dan
-
I should probably clear up any misunderstanding I might have left with my first post regarding pignut's reputation for flight bows, since Dan Perry was the flight bowyer/archer I had in mind, and he has posted that's he's not tried it. Sorry Dan, to have misrepresented your work, even if not specfically. Way back in the whitewood wars days I must have come away with the wrong impression. I think Murray Gaskins advocated pignut, and sold a few staves in his business. At the time he was somewhat vocal about your success using hickory as it related to the broader topic (of the whitewood wars) so I falsely assumed and connected you with pignut.
-
Dan, he has had the trees sunk in his pond for the last 3 years and is cleaning out his pond. I will have him send my a few boards and forward a couple to you, They have to be dried first so it might be a few months. he says the pond has no effect on the wood except for external staining, I hope he is right. Steve
-
steve,
i would just call murray
http://www.murraygaskins.com/abw.html
phone 229-249-8145
those sunken trees sound interesting if nothing else. i would not be concerned at all after drying. i try to use hickory exclusively. i am in mid ga so RH can be a problem, but i use a heat box 95 deg at 30% RH. seems to work out OK.
good luck
jeff
-
Roque, murray hasnt been too relaible the last few years. Not even sure he is till taking orders. Steve
-
For what its worth, Bitternut hickory(carya cordiformis) has very little heartwood that has color. It is the easiest hickory to ID because it has sulfur colored buds(yellow) that are unmistakeable at anytime of the year. It is also more abundant than any of the other species found in the midwest states. I've used this wood for selfbows with great results. In my area it is easy to find, grows fast and straight. The only disadvantage I've found is that it's blinding white almost all the the way to the core and needs stained or skins to get rid of the glare. It is a very noteworthy bow wood in my book.
-
DMC,
No problem. I am sure Pig nut works great. Murray swears by it I believe. And yes, it was a while before attitudes began to change about bow woods. To day, Pretty is as Pretty does. People are making wonderful bows out of dozens of woods. Steve for example.
By now I am sure he has built more bows than I have, and no doubt out of many more woods. This ultra white hickory sounds beautiful to me. I would leave it just as it is. Maybe back an Ipe bow with it. The contrast would be something to see.
Dan
-
Could somebody tell me more about heat treating hickory. Thanks, Ed