Hackberry Day is Today - Finally Posted Photos

[Dave Hoskins]

My good friend Bob is bringing over a fair amount of hackberry today that he had a tree service take down and cut up. I saw the load yesterday and I would estimate about a ton of it. Maybe more but me don't thinks so. But then again my thinking department (aka Brain Housing Group) has been off a tad bit lately.

 

[Toni Ciuraneta]

Never seen hackberry wood. is it similar to cherry in color, hardness etc?

 

[Chuck Ellis]

Fresh cut hackberry is rather bland looking... a light colored wood similar to box elder.... hardness is about soft to medium .... given a few months on the ground it will have a beautiful spalted effect. Too long on the ground and you have sawdust.
One of my favorite woods to work with.

 

[Toni Ciuraneta]

Thanks Chuck, I made a search after reading your comment and now I have a more clear image. When spalted it looks gorgeus, although IMHO too much spalting give too much visual noise depending on the piece made.

 

[Dave Hoskins]

It can be a bland looking wood while green. Like Chuck said, let it sit in the weather for a bit, get rained on and the like and it starts to get some nice spalting in it. Then you have some nice looking wood. It is also a soft wood. Some consider it a trash tree as the sap from it kills a lot of vegetation. Makes for some great looking bowls, though.

 

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

It’s beautiful wood with the spalting. And finished it could be used for things that won’t get a lot of wear. It’s really soft from my experience. The only thing I’ve used it for is picture frames. #2 son put together a live edge frame in a picture his step daughter gave him. It looks great. I’ve got a log by the saw waiting to be milled right now. It might be waiting bit longer.

Up until this past year I just burned it. Then one day I decided to mill some after I’d seen some for sale on eBay. I won’t be burning any more logs.

it would probably do well for table tops with a layer of epoxy.

Alan