Hickory Processing ??s

[ssrhythm]

I finally got out and cut a hickory with my buddy in SC to take back to WY.  I’d planned on stripping bark immediately, but we bit off more than we anticipated and the 78” log was a giant that took four of us to load into my truck bed…we were just happy to get it in there and I would have had to strip the bark in the bed…and there is a tanneau cover on there…so its in there bark on until I can remove it; I can’t/won’t take it out until I’m back in Wyoming, because I don’t have the manpower with me to remove it and/or get it back in there.

So, I sealed the ends with shellack immediately. 

1.  Am I screwed as far as the bark coming off fairly easily?  I won’t be back home and able to get the log out for another 5 days.

2.  What is the best way to split this into staves to get the most out of this behemoth?  I think I remember seeing a section in one of the TBB about using a circular saw to pre-cut stave widths, but this is my first time working with Hickory, so I was skimming when I saw with I think I saw if I actually saw that…so, any advice is much appreciated.

I pulled a Clark Griswald with this tree selection.

[Hamish]

 Never a good idea to remove bark whilst it's in log form. It's too big to dry evenly without cracking badly.
5 days shouldn't be too long to split it.

Split it with wedges at least into quarters. This will let you know if the tree has any propeller twist, or any other character that you need to account for, when laying out staves.

You can use the circular saw method to kerf the inner, pointy part of the quarters. Then use the kerf to split off these sections cleanly, with wedges.

Deal with the inner splits first, either seal the back area, or take it down to one growth ring, then seal it.

[Pat B]

I'd say split it in half as soon as you can. After that you can make staves at a later date. By splitting it now you allow it to safely lose moisture through the split sides. Probably pretty dry in Wyoming so you can release some of the moisture before you get there. At 78" long you could leave the ends unsealed and cut off any check that will show up in the ends. 64" to 68" are good lengths for hickory and the dry Wyoming climate will allow hickory to perform at its peak.

[Eric Krewson]

I cut large hickory logs into halves with a chainsaw, quicker and easier than pounding wedges. Next, I split the halves into quarters then split the heartwood off the sapwood, the heart wood splits off easily.

This was a big tree, some of the wider splits weighed over 50# so I split the heart wood off the wider splits where the tree fell so I could move them more easily, it was long tough trip off the ridge to my truck.



I split all of the heart wood off the splits before I used a skill saw and a chalk line to split out staves.



This was late cut hickory (never again), the staves were beautiful but the bark was stuck on like glue and took me two weeks to get to get off using a drawknife on these 17 staves.

 

I cut up the pile of scrap into chunks and gave 5-gallon buckets of it to my friends who like to smoke or flavor meat on the BBQ grill with it. I cut this tree about 10 years and am still using it's scrap in my BBQ grill.

[ssrhythm]

It is very dry where I live...too dry, and that is why I am wanting to build some hickory bows now.  OK.  So I will have enough manpower available this afternoon...tomorrow afternoon at the latest.  Here's my plan...please comment if you see anything that needs re-thinking!

I'm now in Ft. Payne, AL until Monday, so I'm planning on pulling the beast out and splitting it in half at minimum to start the drying process. 

If I do any splitting, I'll attempt to strip the bark off...hoping it is still wet enough under the bark to strip it...as I want to have it pull off for clean stave/bowbacks vs having to drawknife the bark off and risk screwing up the stave/bow backs during that debarking.  I say this, because when I remove bark off of seasoned Osage staves, it's a PITA and as the bark comes off, it will often run under and pull up hunks of sapwood.  It's easy to see in osage, and it looks like it will not be easy to see on hickory.  I'd rather not get into having to chase whitewood rings.

So, If I split it in half, is there any reason I shouldn't juts go ahead and 1/4 it or 1/8 it...or split it out into however many staves I can get?  It's at least a 20" diameter log...it barely fits under my tonneau cover. 

If I split it all the way down into staves....I'm curious about what you are talking about, Hamish, regarding the kerfing part.  Are you saying to use the circular saw on the split staves to make a cut into the side of the split staves (along a growth ring) to split out additional "inner wood staves?"  If so, I'm guessing that trying to split off the inner staves from the originally split staves will not be as easy as hammering a draw knife into the end of the stave at one growth ring and having that split run along that growth ring for the length of the stave.  I've hand luck getting small child bow staves and removing unwanted bulk belly wood from dry osage staves n this manner, but I'm guessing hickory won't play so nice? 

Regardless, I do not want to waste these inner-tree staves, as each split whether it splits into 1/6, 1/8, or possibly even 1/12...each original stave should have two bows.  If the log splits in a reasonably controlled manner, each stave should be ~10" deep give or take an inch or two.

If I am able to get these inner tree, core staves, I undoubtably will have to chase a ring on each of them.  I've chased a ton of osage rings, and they are very obvious and the process fairly simple on most decent osage staves.  Is the early wood on hickory crunchy as it is on Osage?  I know the visual difference is not going to be as obvious...especially with my aging eyes, so I'm hoping the feel will be similar.  Any tips on chasing a hickory growth ring will be much appreciated,

Pat B...you are absolutely correct about my home climate being ultra dry.  I think this log is about as straight and non-twisty as I will ever find, but no matter how good or non-twisty this hickory may be, once I split all this up into final stave sizes, I'm concerned that the rapid drying that it will go through will cause it to warp and twist like crazy.  I don't have the time, energy, space, or tools to take each of these staves down to rough bow shape and clamp flat to dry...which would be ideal.  Any suggestion on what to do to minimize any warping or twisting from the rapid drying environment?  Maybe just split into Quarters for now or 1/6 for now and let those fatter staves dry more slowly hoping that and the bulk of each will minimize warping?  OK...I think I just worked my way into an answer on that...I need to split into staves with three or four bows in them that will dry reasonably vs splitting it into final bow size staves.

Thanks for reading through all that and thanks in advance for any advice given or to be given.  I'll kick y'all down a hickory stave once they are ready since you...or if you helped guide me to not screwing this log up! 

Y'all have a happy and safe Independence Day!

[ssrhythm]

I cut large hickory logs into halves with a chainsaw, quicker and easier than pounding wedges. Next, I split the halves into quarters then split the heartwood off the sapwood, the heart wood splits off easily.

This was a big tree, some of the wider splits weighed over 50# so I split the heart wood off the wider splits where the tree fell so I could move them more easily, it was long tough trip off the ridge to my truck.



I split all of the heart wood off the splits before I used a skill saw and a chalk line to split out staves.



This was late cut hickory (never again), the staves were beautiful but the bark was stuck on like glue and took me two weeks to get to get off using a drawknife on these 17 staves.

 

I cut up the pile of scrap into chunks and gave 5-gallon buckets of it to my friends who like to smoke or flavor meat on the BBQ grill with it. I cut this tree about 10 years and am still using it's scrap in my BBQ grill.

Heck yes.  Ok.  So, I do not have access to any of my tools until I get back to Wyoming on Monday...well, realistically Tuesday.  We cut this tree Monday afternoon/evening, so Once I get back home, it will have been cut with the ends half ass sealed for one week.

I like your first cut move.  I actually have a neighbor in Wyoming with a sawmill, and we can easily cut that tree in 1/2 on his mill.  Once we do that...if I go that route...I will then quarter the log.  Do you think I'll still be able to strip the bark off fairly similarly to the way it peels off when you first drop a tree like this?  Again, it will have been down with ends sealed for 7 or  8 days when I quarter and attempt to strip the bark.

Also, you say that the inner heartwood splits off easily?  Do you use these heartwood splits as staves and make bows out of them?  All the staves in your pics have bark on them, so I'm thinking your inner heartwood is part of the scraps you are referring to for smoking?

Appreciate your advice and you taking the time to read and post your process.

[Muskyman]

I read on here, or somewhere that you can steam the bark off. I tried it and did get the bark off one stave. It came off grudgingly but, did come off. I used a wall paper steamer with the stave instead of a piece of hvac metal duct. It was a pain but it did come off. In

[Hamish]

"If I split it all the way down into staves....I'm curious about what you are talking about, Hamish, regarding the kerfing part.  Are you saying to use the circular saw on the split staves to make a cut into the side of the split staves (along a growth ring) to split out additional "inner wood staves?"  If so, I'm guessing that trying to split off the inner staves from the originally split staves will not be as easy as hammering a draw knife into the end of the stave at one growth ring and having that split run along that growth ring for the length of the stave.  I've hand luck getting small child bow staves and removing unwanted bulk belly wood from dry osage staves n this manner, but I'm guessing hickory won't play so nice? "

Yes, you can use the circular saw to kerf for the inner splits. Like you mention, you can also try to split off the inner manually, without kerfing. Sometimes the wood wants to run off and migrate back towards the top split, though. If you catch it early enough and know what you are doing you can sometimes force the split back towards  where its supposed to be. Other times it doesn't work, no matter what you do. I also wouldn't recommend using a drawknife for splitting. The temper of the knife will make it more brittle than flexible, and you risk the knife getting damaged, with either chipped edge, distorted back  from beating on it, or even potentially snapping it. A froe is the proper tool for this kind of work, but most people don't have one.

[ssrhythm]

I'll try to find a free and quit abusing my draw knives.  Thanks.

[Eric Krewson]

Your log won't change any in the time you have to get it back home.

I don't go after inner splits on hickory; it can be done but with hickory so plentiful where I live, I don't feel it was worth my time. If you split off the inner sapwood it is very unlikely that the split will follow the grain, inner splits tend to cross grains and go up or down, I did all of my splitting with wedges and a small 3# sledge hammer, everything split off easily.

Chasing a ring on hickory can be done, I ended up chasing one ring on the back of all of the hickory staves that you see in the pile but I have chased so may rings on osage staves that it wasn't that hard even though the hickory rings were tight, it was more scraper work than drawknife work.

The scrap pile has mostly side cuts off the splits that were too wide, I made every stave a uniform width. Some of the staves were too thick so I split off the bellies which was a mixture of sapwood and heart wood.

I have an older friend that has used hickory exclusively throughout his many years of bow making, he cuts a log in half and leaves it that way for 6 months before he splits it into staves. He said this minimizes any warping that may occur.

Most of my staves stayed arrow straight, a few doglegged as they dried, I found that hickory is very hard to heat correct. I  straightened my warped staves with steam and heat, a few behaved, most went back to their bent configuration and required repeated straightening sessions to correct.

If I had made my staves a little wider, I could have cut a straight stave out of the center of the bent wood.

Like I said it took me two weeks to clean up the backs of all of those staves. Here they are in my shop finally cleaned up with the backs and ends painted with shellac.



   

[Pappy]

I usually peal the bark, I usually go over it with a scrapper lightly to get the gummy layer off under the bark ,seal the back and ends, split it into 1/4's or maybe even 1/8's if it is a large log as you describe, no narrower than about 4 inches then let it set a few months  and then ,with 4 inches you can get 2 bows from each stave after it dries, then split or saw it down to 2 inch staves, leaving it wide to start will keep it from warping. I also belly split the heart wood off, it will usually follow the heart wood grain right down the log if it is a clean log with no knots. I cook brats with the belly split heart wood. Most hickory will split good with just a wedge and sledge, if not I will Cerf it with a chain saw and then split, most time that is not necessary .
 Pappy

[ssrhythm]

Got it split at a neighbor's sawmill...tben tweaked my lower back lifting one end onto the sawhorse.  Bark stripped off fairly easily, and we moved it into the garage with a tractor.  Shellacked and starting to dry.  I think leaving it as halves is the right way to go, as RH here is sometimes painfully low and nearly always ridiculously low.  My plan is to just split off a stave at a time as I go.  Thanks for all the advice.

[Pappy]

Looking good, I usually do 1/4's with a log that size and then split off the belly/heart wood, just makes them easier to handle and they will dry a little quicker but that will be fine just the way you did it. Should make some fine bows. 
 Pappy

[ssrhythm]

Looking good, I usually do 1/4's with a log that size and then split off the belly/heart wood, just makes them easier to handle and they will dry a little quicker but that will be fine just the way you did it. Should make some fine bows. 
 Pappy

I was thinking about going 1/4 if for nothing more than ease of handling, but it is so friggin dry here, and I'm in no hurry...I figured there is less chance of warping and twisting if I just leave it as halves.  I'm having to rehydrate my all my osage once I have a it roughed out or it'll pop a splinter on the most pristine back. It's painfully dry in my neck of Wyoming.

Appreciate all the advice.

[Hamish]

 The risk with leaving timber in halves is that it still has a high propensity to split/check, due to the outside drying first, with the deep inside staying wet. This can happen even when sealed. This is highly dependent on the climate, heat and humidity where someone lives. Some people get away with it, others end up with firewood.

I live in a climate that has very hot, dry summers. Bow wood in large sections will just crack. An hour away, further up the mts, the temperature drops about 10 deg Celsius, at my friends place. He has no trouble drying large sections of wood.

 Quarters won't twist (unless there already is twist). They probably won't take much of a reflex either.

I wish you luck, and hope you live in a favorable climate.