Either Hickory is heavy or I'm outa shape!!

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muncybob

Minister of Fire
Apr 8, 2008
2,158
Near Williamsport, PA
Probably the latter along with some of the former. After originally responding to a Craigs List ad back in September on taking down some trees I finally got the OK from the owner and went there last Saturday. A friend and I cut and removed 4 tall trees. This amounted to 2 heaping truck loads of rounds one of which we split and stacked before going back for the 2nd truck load. I'm guessing we'll have just under 1.5 cords when it's all done. I'll try to remember pics when it is all stacked. 2 days later I'm still sore! My first dealings with hickory, this stuff is much heavier than cherry and silver maple which is what I seem to find more often than not.

This one score may amount to a lot of wood for me. The home owner association president came over to chat with us and wanted to know if we would be interested in all the trees that were felled recently when they put in new power lines. Limbs have already been chipped so it's just bucking and loading mostly oak and ash trees. I'll gladly trade a few more weeks of soreness for all that wood!
 
Its heavy no matter if you're in shape or not lol
 
I learned to start taking Ibuprofen the day before. It helps.
All wood is heavy, some is just lighter than other :lol:
I bet it's a "good sore" muscle feeling though. A hard days work always feels good, sore, but a good sore :)
 
"Either Hickory is heavy or I’m outa shape!!"

In my case, that would be a yes. %-P Rick
 
x100 on ALL WOOD is heavy - just some more than others. I Just bucked a large fallen maple that was still alive. It was on the edge of my creek so it took a big lean last year in a storm - lean all the way to the ground(almost) but still very much living. I bucked the fattest trunk and had to hump 20+" rounds about 20yards to the trailer. GEESH is maple heavy when green. This stuff holds more water than should be legal. Especially when you consider how light it becomes when seasoned. had a serious flow of water coming off the stump within 10 minutes of cutting it off. Mind you the root system is esentially sitting in water and the whole tree is very much alive. I plan to let the other, not so large trunk, keep growing if my taking of his bigger brother does not kill the tree. Kind of money in bank if it keeps getting bigger, maybe?

Smaller trunk is on a 45 to the ground so I am hoping it just keeps getting fatter and closer to the saw for when I want to CSS it in a year or two.
 
"Heavy" or "light" is meaningless- see Funk & Wagnall's.

"Dense" or "low density" says it all- weight or mass per unit volume.

(Better watch out, the Chinese are gaining on us.)
 
Hickory is heavy. I got a nice free score in November 2011, split and stacked it, and more than a year later the stuff is still heavy as lead. I'm prolly going to hold off on burning it until next year to give it extra time to season, as this winter has been so mild we haven't needed mega heat output.
 
Hickory, Oak and Walnut are all heavy. Heaviest I encountered to date has been Beech. It was noticably heavier than the afore mentioned. Had to limit the amount on the trailer for fear of damage.
 
Yep, this was the lowest I've ever seen the truck sag....but I wasn't taking any off! Helper springs were certainly earning their keep that day. Funny how at the end of the day it was taking both of us to lift rounds that earlier in the day we were doing solo. :)

I really don't mind the soreness esp since my back feels great, but I'm giving myself a few days before I split and stack the next truck load.
 
muncybob said:
Probably the latter along with some of the former. After originally responding to a Craigs List ad back in September on taking down some trees I finally got the OK from the owner and went there last Saturday. A friend and I cut and removed 4 tall trees. This amounted to 2 heaping truck loads of rounds one of which we split and stacked before going back for the 2nd truck load. I'm guessing we'll have just under 1.5 cords when it's all done. I'll try to remember pics when it is all stacked. 2 days later I'm still sore! My first dealings with hickory, this stuff is much heavier than cherry and silver maple which is what I seem to find more often than not.

This one score may amount to a lot of wood for me. The home owner association president came over to chat with us and wanted to know if we would be interested in all the trees that were felled recently when they put in new power lines. Limbs have already been chipped so it's just bucking and loading mostly oak and ash trees. I'll gladly trade a few more weeks of soreness for all that wood!

It looks like you have plenty of work muncybob, nice work.

zap
 
I'm glad to hear it's not just me. My hands and lower legs sure let me know they don't like all this firewood stuff. Good thing I enjoy being outside so much! Sure makes a fella sleep good!
 
muncybob said:
Probably the latter along with some of the former. After originally responding to a Craigs List ad back in September on taking down some trees I finally got the OK from the owner and went there last Saturday. A friend and I cut and removed 4 tall trees. This amounted to 2 heaping truck loads of rounds one of which we split and stacked before going back for the 2nd truck load. I'm guessing we'll have just under 1.5 cords when it's all done. I'll try to remember pics when it is all stacked. 2 days later I'm still sore! My first dealings with hickory, this stuff is much heavier than cherry and silver maple which is what I seem to find more often than not.

This one score may amount to a lot of wood for me. The home owner association president came over to chat with us and wanted to know if we would be interested in all the trees that were felled recently when they put in new power lines. Limbs have already been chipped so it's just bucking and loading mostly oak and ash trees. I'll gladly trade a few more weeks of soreness for all that wood!

Right Bob. I also agree with the others that all wood is heavy but some are a bit lighter than others. Also the wood does tend to get heavier as we age. But overall, that exercise you are getting is great for your body.

That is really great that this fellow came to offer you the other felled trees. That is like frosting on the cake and you won't even have to deal with the branches.
 
MuncyBob, Im right up the road if ya need any help....lol.....great score buddy, that hickory smells great when it's burning, and it puts out the BTUs, I like having hickory in my stack! Sounds like you will be plenty busy in the coming weeks!
 
I just split up some Pig Nut Hickory. It was very heavy and really hard to split even on the hydraulic. Very stringy with interlocking grain. The tree came out of a door yard over in town. When seasoned in a couple years I'll see how it burns.
 
I think what we were cutting was Pig Nut, fairly smooth bark and branches were high up the trunk and not many to deal with. After the first split I went back to fetch my Fiskars axe due to the stringy splits but wasn't too bad.

Scotty, where are you in PA? If the other trees works out and it gets too much for us I'll keep you in mind...but don't get your hopes up :)
 
muncybob said:
I think what we were cutting was Pig Nut, fairly smooth bark and branches were high up the trunk and not many to deal with. After the first split I went back to fetch my Fiskars axe due to the stringy splits but wasn't too bad.

Scotty, where are you in PA? If the other trees works out and it gets too much for us I'll keep you in mind...but don't get your hopes up :)
I'm just north of Altoona. Where are you located? I'm just bustin yer chops bud. Keep that wood, you got a good score there! But if you do need me, ...... :smirk:
 
That's a bit of a drive to us just east of Williamsport.....you have lots of trees out there anyhow :) I could have used one of those tools in your avatar when splitting the hickory, going to keep my eyes open for a small hatchet.
 
muncybob said:
That's a bit of a drive to us just east of Williamsport.....you have lots of trees out there anyhow :) I could have used one of those tools in your avatar when splitting the hickory, going to keep my eyes open for a small hatchet.
those hatchets were used for more gruesome purposes many many moons ago, they are trade axes and tomahawks from colonial times. That's another collecting bug that I have......you'll have no problem staying warm cutting all that wood and then burning it in the stove!
 
I love burning hickory, but I hate, hate, hate, hand splitting it. OMG. Makes me feel like a big wimp. What we need are genetically engineered hickory/locust species that split like ash or pine. Hmm maybe Monsato will come up with that.

littlespark
 
Littlespark said:
I love burning hickory, but I hate, hate, hate, hand splitting it. OMG. Makes me feel like a big wimp. What we need are genetically engineered hickory/locust species that split like ash or pine. Hmm maybe Monsato will come up with that.

littlespark

Unfortunately then it would be pretty much worthless as handles for striking tools lol
 
Littlespark said:
I love burning hickory, but I hate, hate, hate, hand splitting it. OMG. Makes me feel like a big wimp. What we need are genetically engineered hickory/locust species that split like ash or pine. Hmm maybe Monsato will come up with that.

littlespark
hope monsanto stays out of the wood bussiness, they would charge you to cut your own trees.
 
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