A surprise Score

[andybaker]

I've been working on my score of 20-30 dead Ash, which has turned out to be closer to 50 trees, and just into the back of the woods was a large tree that was down. I checked it out and it is a Shag-bark Hickory. I've been jealous of all the nice woods a lot of you score and all I've gotten for the last 3-4 years is dead Ash. I hope the Hickory isn't too full of Black Ants, I hate bringing Ants into the neighborhood. A friend of mine said he's taking some of the smaller stuff for smoking. I think we have maybe 3 more years of dead Ash and it'll be gone then we'll go back to scrounging for better stuff, at least a variety.

andybaker

 

[Archie]

I've burned some hickory from my property, and there wasn't anything out of the ordinary in terms of ants or any critters for that matter. Has it been down a long time, is that your concern? If so, visual inspection is usually all that's necessary.

 

[redhotz]

I had a surprise score the other day. We had a fast 70mph storm come through and broke the top off, of our hickory tree. The bottom of the brake was 14 inches in diameter, looks like it was damaged in that area. Took 4 hours to cut it and clean up, looks like more wood to split. :coolsmile:

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Andy that is a nice score but I don't know why you are concerned with ants. You very well might find more ants in the ash than in the hickory. Over the years we have not found that many ants in the wood but I do recall two ash that had ants. The worst we've ever found were in a cherry.

 

[Jags]

Get to that hickory fast. Those things don't last too long once they are down.

 

[andybaker]

I'll find out 'bout the ants when I cut into it. When it blew over it was about 3' off the ground and is about high off the ground still so it's aged very well - no decay. It fell over because ants (or something that makes the same mark) weakened the base and it finally gave out. I can see all kinds of little holes going into but have no idea what's doing it or did it. Hopefully the damage is limited to the base and the rest of the tree is fine. I'll like having some hard wood to last longer into the night than White or Green Ash.

Andybaker