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Anybody work with Hickory? Couple of questions. - Printable Version

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Anybody work with Hickory? Couple of questions. - Wild Turkey - 07-05-2020

Bing the wood addict I am when they widened the road by my house and cut down a nice Hickory I quickly showed up with my trailer and tractor and helped them clean up the area.  Took three nice logs (never measured them but the three barely fit on the 6' wide trailer!) to the Amish band saw mill and brought home a nice stack of lumber stickered and stacked in the back of the shed
Winkgrin .

Now it's two years later and I'm using the hickory to make some stair treads for the new house.
Rolleyes

I'm sanding the wood after running it through my Jet 15" planer with Shelix head.  Looks very good laying on bench, but getting up close I see some "waves" in the surface. I start sanding with 6" ROS and 80 grit paper and waves start going away so I'm thinking it's somehow related to planer.

Waves are about 3/4" apart -- my first thought is the wood is bouncing somehow when cutters make cut.  So more sanding, change paper and sand some more and it's smooth and waves aren't apparent.

Then I try some stain.  Trying to blend the sapwood and heartwood I tried a very dark stain on the white areas and the waves pop up again as dark stripes in the light wood.

Since they are perpendicular to the grain I'm wondering if it's from the bandsaw teeth somehow compressing the wood since I've sanded it smooth and only the stain shows the streaks.

Any ideas????
Confused
Confused
Confused


RE: Anybody work with Hickory? Couple of questions. - Gary G™ - 07-05-2020

When you say waves, are you seeing changing grain direction or chatoyance?
Is it actually rough and uneven to the touch?

Hickory is often multi-colored and beautifully colorful.
Why muddy it up and try to make it look like something it’s not?
Buy poplar and paint it, if that’s the look you’re after.


RE: Anybody work with Hickory? Couple of questions. - GeeDub - 07-05-2020

At the slow speed your planer is making about 70 cuts per inch (feel free to check my math) so I don't see it being knife related.  A chalk mark on a test blank run through the planer would help confirm if the pattern is coming from something in the planer.  I made a kitchen piece out of pecan (same genus) and used the coloration as part of the design elements.

[attachment=28109]

And yes, once the project was completed EVERYTHING went out for sharpening.   picture of what you r are seeing would possibly get you better responses.


RE: Anybody work with Hickory? Couple of questions. - mound - 07-05-2020

only once.. dining table/chair commission, the customer sourced the hickory. haven't worked with it before or since, and not sure I would again. hard as he** on knives and I don't find it attractive enough to make my own projects from it. The sap/heart difference was not something to hide for this customer - they wanted it bold and obvious and that's why they wanted hickory.. Turned out kinda pretty in hindsight, but not my taste..

I suppose an aniline dye would maybe even it out if you totally changed the color. Can't really answer if the banding you saw was the chatoyance and you maybe knocked it down by sanding? With sharp cutter heads (shelix especially) I wouldn't expect it to leave obvious machining marks.


RE: Anybody work with Hickory? Couple of questions. - lift mechanic - 07-05-2020

I have never experienced what you are talking about. Did you run it through a jointer first? If it is "wavy" on the side down on the planer it will be wavy on the side being planed. Not sure that is the problem, maybe try some scrap and joint one face first then run it through the planer.


RE: Anybody work with Hickory? Couple of questions. - EdL - 07-05-2020

No idea on the waves.....other than that Hickory is freakin' hard and he11 on tooling. It shouldn't bother your byrd head, I always run it on the low speed feed, 1/2 turn (.04") per pass, max.

I wouldn't even try to stain it, the beauty is in the contrast.....

Ed


RE: Anybody work with Hickory? Couple of questions. - Wild Turkey - 07-05-2020

It may be chatoyance, but I'm wondering because it was smooth to the touch in some areas but a bit ridged in others but it all sanded out until I added the stain (Minwax "Early American")

I'm staining it to insure domestic tranquility. 
Rolleyes  SWMBO doesn't like too much contrast in flooring.


I'll try to get some pix of the banding in the stain.


RE: Anybody work with Hickory? Couple of questions. - Rich_Dixon - 07-09-2020

Are you sure it's dry?


RE: Anybody work with Hickory? Couple of questions. - AHill - 07-09-2020

Two years is the bare minimum for air drying. I would have surface planed the boards, then waited at least 6 months before planing them to final thickness. Hickory is very dense and takes longer to dry than most woods.


RE: Anybody work with Hickory? Couple of questions. - Bucko - 07-10-2020

A bowl I turned from a local Shagbark Hickory tree , Oak and Hickory are our among local popular trees.