Replies

1. 
   Sancho | Jun 29, 2002 05:20am | #1

   I tell you one thing about Hickory it splitsand splinters like a big dog. So take your time and dont get frustrated. I hope you got primarliy straight grain hickory cuz it seems to splinter less. thats about all I know of the negatives. It is a beautiful wood when you finish and stained it.

    Darkworksite4: When the job is to small for everyone else, Its just about right for me"

1. 
   BOBSKIBBY | Jun 29, 2002 05:29am | #2

   Thanks for the info. I have some really nice material to work with and have already experienced a little tear out already milling up the door and window casings.  I'm really taking my time with project and using all rally sharp blades and knives in my tools. The finished casings have some really beautiful grain patterns to it and I'm really happy with the end result.This is my first time in this forum and really enjoying the info and advice. Thanks BOB

1. 
   DougU | Jun 29, 2002 06:21am | #3

   Skibby

   Haven't built any interior doors out of hickory but I have built a set of kitchen cabs. Don't plane like you would other woods, take very thin passes, seems to tear out easier than other woods. Looks good when you are done though.

   Doug

1. 
   BOBSKIBBY | Jun 29, 2002 03:39pm | #4

   Thank You for the reponse. This wood is very hard and I have been taking things really slow. Planing in very lite passes and slowly. My biggest concern is possible warping and expansion and contraction due to varying temps. and humidity in the home.  BOB

1. 
   Snort | Jun 29, 2002 05:32pm | #5

   We've been doing a lot of hickory trim for the past year. These houses all have hickory floors and cabinets, too. We haven't had to make any doors, but the flooring seems to be more stable, shrinkage wise, than oak and maple strip flooring...and things we've had to mill and glue up have stayed together and flat, so far...Must be good and bad hickory, though, because up until the last house, we had no trouble edge milling, end milling, planining, jointing or ripping...but this last batch blows up when we look at it!? Some of it is amazingly beautiful... And now the stuff is so popular, it' is hard to get...

   Good luck

2. 
   BOBSKIBBY | Jun 30, 2002 05:02pm | #11

   Thanks! Your right it is a really beautiful wood. Up here in Western New York were blessed with a lot of nice hard wood forests. I wanted something a little different than oak which is in every ones houses. I'll let you know how the project turns out when I'm finished. Thanks BOB

2. 
   finebuilder | Jun 29, 2002 10:21pm | #7

   Doug , My wife has requested a hickory kitchen in a shaker style.  Building the cabinets is a snap ( done lots of them).  My concern is in the milling.  Do you know if one type ( for lack of a better term ) of hickory works cleaner than another?  Could you tell me how much waste to ( 10 % ) expect, due to milling blowout etc? I would appreciate anyones advice!              Miami

1. 
   Sancho | Jun 30, 2002 05:15am | #8

   My brother Im just finishing a kitchen I built out of Hickory. If your useing pocket holes, Do yourself a favor predrill if you can, drive the screw a little and back it out and do it again work it into the pocket hole. It will chip out. If your not going for the "rustic" look like I did with the knots and worm holes holes ect, try to use the light colored straight grained hickory it seemed to not split or tear out as much. I kid you not, I wasted a lot of time and of course money re doing pieces that split or tore. Check the thread on the cabinet doors in  Fine Home Building General Discussion (I think)and I showed some pics of a couple of the doors I made along with the F/F ect. I used a chestnut stain. All the dark spots are knots on these doors. It does look good though, Im happy with it. Still working on the kitchen as you'll tell by the pics.

    Darkworksite4: When the job is to small for everyone else, Its just about right for me"

   Edited 6/29/2002 10:18:58 PM ET by Ron Teti

2. 
   DougU | Jun 30, 2002 05:38am | #9

   M S

   I bought all of my hickory from a local supplier and to be honest I don't recall what kind of hickory it was, not real sure if there is differences, I'm sure there are its just that the hickory that he had was what I was used to seeing so I used it. Sorry that's not much help but I am just not aware of different species.

   As far as milling I kind of cheated there, the supplier has such good milling equipment compared to what I had at the time that for styles and rails I just had him s4s and for the doors  s3s, then I ripped to what widths I needed and jointed the edges, taking as little as possible off at each pass. Also Make sure knifes and cutters are sharp, cant stress that enough.

   I didn't allow any more for waste than I would have for any other wood though, just took more care when milling. That probably has more to do with me being to tight  to buy extra than thinking that I would have more waste, But I really didn't have any significant change in waste compared to other woods.

    If you have the advantage of timesaver sander than you can use that to your advantage, do your final finish milling with it, no tear out there. Wont help on profiling but that you just have to take your time and read the wood a little, make sure when you can to feed wood into cutters with grain facing right way and all that stuff. You say that you have built cabinets I don't think that you will find this that difficult. I was intimidated because of an experience nailing some hickory crown up, first nail I tried to shot into the crown my gun must not have been square to the wood and the nail came back and hit me right in the face, stung a little, but the rest of the time that I worked with hickory I felt that I was working with concrete that had 5 yrs. curing time.

   They make some beautiful cabinets though and I wish I could give you more to go on but my experience is just the one set of cabinets.

   Doug

2. 
   jayglon | Jun 29, 2002 07:18pm | #6

   I made some interior doors as you describe out of maple. the 3/4" pieces definately showed different expansion and contraction rates. therefor, you could always seem to see and feel the glue line on the jamb sides of the door. since then, i have switched to using 5/4, 6/4 and 8/4 planing to the correct and desired thickness.

   thats just my situation , maybe i did something wrong when i did my initial glue up.

1. 
   BOBSKIBBY | Jun 30, 2002 04:42pm | #10

   Thank You for the reply. You hit the nail right on. I could only get 4/4 and 5/4 stock to work with. The mill had nothing thicker  in stock. I'm going to procede hoping for the best. The lumber was kiln dried and also air dried in my shop for 6 months. I want the look and feel of a thicker door. I'll start working on them today. Thanks BOB