Buying Hickory Wood

sounds like the guy your getting it from knows whats going on.

I am lucky enough to have a sawmill up on the ridge in front of my house all they do is hickory and I can get as much as i want free you may want to look in your area for a sawmill like this

I can tell you from very recent personal experience, KNOW Hickory yourself. I'd
hate for you to be cooking using something skunky that looks similar but isn't Hickory!
I've found here in Ga that most of the firewood guys wouldn't know Hickory if it bit
them on the butt...

Sounds like the guy does know his Hickory though. Sounds like he's describing an
older "shagbark" Hickory...

Yes, seasoned is best. When cooking, make sure it doesn't have any fungus on it,
etc. Not green. Not wet. Look for the gazillion listings here about "sweet blue"
smoke. You dont get this with wet or green wood...

BTW, somewhere in here, a little over a month ago, is a thread where I showed a
whole bunch of pictures. NONE of them were/are Hickory. Zero. I learned to
identify hickory (young and old trees) by bark. THEN I was able to go pick up
Hickory. Even this guy (the wood supplier) didn't know what was Hickory and what
was oak... Ugh.

Try sawing it that will tell if it hickory lol

this is shagbark hickory.this tree didn't nut this year & the leaves are gold now.hope it helps.

BTW, seasoned wood (I hope I'm not insulting you - but you said you have no clue) is just another way of saying "dried" wood. I usually season my wood (allow it to dry after being cut) for about 9 months before I'll use it in my smoker. Green wood means it hasn't dried yet. Allow it to dry too long and in the wrong conditions (too much ambient moisture etc) and it will eventually rot.

Also, what kind of smoker do you have? Unless you have a rather large stick burner - buying chunks may be the best idea for your rig. After all, you don't want to use sticks on a WSM.

gduke said:

I just got back. I saw the tree and it was shagbark. The wood had been seasoned for about a year. I got 1 row in my truck for 50 bucks. I have a side burner smoker. I usually go through about 2.5 bags of that chunck stuff per smoke which costs about 6 bucks a bag. This will be significantly cheaper.

Click to expand...

Up here in Iowa I buy 800 lb logs for about $50 - but then again I am left to cut and season it myself. Looks like you are off to a good start - but I think you can find it cheaper if Hickory grows in abundance in your neck of the woods. What I do - go to a mill and ask them for their non-furniture grade hickory. They are looking to get rid of the stuff. Bring cash (I'm sure they will report any profit to the tax man).

If you are using something like a brinkmann off-set (you know - something you buy at Lowe's or any hardware store) you may want to use wood sparingly. I used to oversmoke my meat, but more importantly if you use wood for fuel but dont have enough space in the firebox the smoke from the wood will choke the fire and temps are harder to control. Just my $.02.

Here is how to tell if your split log is seasoned. Drop it from waist height onto concrete. If it rings with a hollow sound on landing, it is good to go. If it hits with a solid thud, it is not ready.

I use this little trick all the time, since ANY wood here is called seasoned. If they cut it from a dead tree, and it is fresh-cut, that is "seasoned." Uh, no it is not!

Species of hickory, including pecan:

http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/pages/compare-hickories.htm

People argue here and say "That ain't hickory" if it is not shagbark. Oh yeah, it is. Know your wood.

As far as quantities, wood here is sold by the "rick." The current price of a rick of split seasoned wood is $50-$100 here. In many cases, if you say you are using it to smoke meat around here, it will go more toward the $100 end than the $50 end, so all my wood is bought to heat my house.

It takes 3 ricks of 16" long wood to make an exact cord. A rick is 4 feet by 8 feet stacked, and is customarily 16" long, but there is no hard rule on length for ricks, so if you get short-cut wood and buy 3 ricks, you are short a full cord.

A cord of wood is 4x4x8 stacked, period. If you have your 3 ricks and they are 16" long, you can multiply the per-rick price to get a cord price. This makes it easy to compare prices. On the other hand, if a seller seems cheap on price but his wood is shorter than 16" you know he is shorting you a full cord at 3 ricks. If you will measure your arm to see where 16" falls on it, you can casually and easily assess wood length at the cutter without the need to pull out a tape measure and maybe offend the cutter.

Know your measurements and what quantity and stage of seasoning you are really buying. Every cutter has his ways. You want well-seasoned wood, but not wood older than 1 year in the woodpile for best results smoking meats.

You are correct, it is significantly cheaper to use wood bought by the rick or cord. Here's 2 1/2 cords of hickory, with a smidge of maple in front...