Hickory Processing ??s

[ssrhythm]

I finally got out and cut a hickory with my buddy in SC to take back to WY.  I’d planned on stripping bark immediately, but we bit off more than we anticipated and the 78” log was a giant that took four of us to load into my truck bed…we were just happy to get it in there and I would have had to strip the bark in the bed…and there is a tanneau cover on there…so its in there bark on until I can remove it; I can’t/won’t take it out until I’m back in Wyoming, because I don’t have the manpower with me to remove it and/or get it back in there.

So, I sealed the ends with shellack immediately. 

1.  Am I screwed as far as the bark coming off fairly easily?  I won’t be back home and able to get the log out for another 5 days.

2.  What is the best way to split this into staves to get the most out of this behemoth?  I think I remember seeing a section in one of the TBB about using a circular saw to pre-cut stave widths, but this is my first time working with Hickory, so I was skimming when I saw with I think I saw if I actually saw that…so, any advice is much appreciated.

I pulled a Clark Griswald with this tree selection.

[Hamish]

 Never a good idea to remove bark whilst it's in log form. It's too big to dry evenly without cracking badly.
5 days shouldn't be too long to split it.

Split it with wedges at least into quarters. This will let you know if the tree has any propeller twist, or any other character that you need to account for, when laying out staves.

You can use the circular saw method to kerf the inner, pointy part of the quarters. Then use the kerf to split off these sections cleanly, with wedges.

Deal with the inner splits first, either seal the back area, or take it down to one growth ring, then seal it.

[Pat B]

I'd say split it in half as soon as you can. After that you can make staves at a later date. By splitting it now you allow it to safely lose moisture through the split sides. Probably pretty dry in Wyoming so you can release some of the moisture before you get there. At 78" long you could leave the ends unsealed and cut off any check that will show up in the ends. 64" to 68" are good lengths for hickory and the dry Wyoming climate will allow hickory to perform at its peak.