# Questions on Hackberry



## RexB (Apr 10, 2022)

Hi all, 
My brother wants to cut down 2 Hackberry trees.
One is 30ft tall by 18 inches in diameter. The other about the same.
My questions are; what are they good for in turning as I've never turned it. What is best way to cut the chunks? What other considerations do I need to understand? 
Thanks to all.


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## 2feathers Creative Making (Apr 10, 2022)

Spalted, it makes pretty stuff. Fresh, it makes utility stuff with heavy grain patterns. Light sapwood, darker heartwood. Treat like oak and cut like oak. If you can spalt the crotch portion, it will activate a crazy pattern.

Reactions: Agree 1 | Informative 1


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## trc65 (Apr 10, 2022)

It's pretty unimpressive turned fresh, but left to age, and hopefully spalt, it's beautiful. Some have said it will spalt over a summer, but these shown below were cut in November 2020 and left to sit in the woods for a year before I roughed them. I would guess trees cut in spring would spalt much quicker than these that were cut after leaf drop.

The pics shown below are from the same tree. I'll probably wait until mid/late summer to finish processing the rest of this tree. Also plan to cut another down this spring to compare to the fall harvested tree.

This one doesn't have much spalting, but has developed the beautiful browns and greys with age. It also shows some real nice "feather" with the grain patterns.





The next pictures are of the same bowl with some more spalting.









My advise, leave them in log form if you can and let them sit in a nice damp, full shade spot until at least early fall. Cut a little bit then and see what it looks like.

Reactions: Like 2 | EyeCandy! 2 | Great Post 1 | Informative 1


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## Mr. Peet (Apr 10, 2022)

trc65 said:


> It's pretty unimpressive turned fresh, but left to age, and hopefully spalt, it's beautiful. Some have said it will spalt over a summer, but these shown below were cut in November 2020 and left to sit in the woods for a year before I roughed them. I would guess trees cut in spring would spalt much quicker than these that were cut after leaf drop.
> 
> The pics shown below are from the same tree. I'll probably wait until mid/late summer to finish processing the rest of this tree. Also plan to cut another down this spring to compare to the fall harvested tree.
> 
> ...


Cutting in the fall often means more sugars and starches have fallen to the roots. Spring cut tree has those nutrients in the upper stem and will stain quicker, often the grey and blue stains first.

Reactions: Like 2 | Informative 1


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## barry richardson (Apr 10, 2022)

I've heard you can set the cut end of a chunk in some damp dirt in a shady place and get good results, anyone tried that?


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## Karl_TN (Apr 11, 2022)

barry richardson said:


> I've heard you can set the cut end of a chunk in some damp dirt in a shady place and get good results, anyone tried that?


I’ve heard the same thing along with pouring on some beer and cover with plastic. Personally I have better luck getting maple to spalt compared to hackberry when leaving a log on the ground under a tree to keep it out of the hot sun.

Reactions: Like 1


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## DLJeffs (Apr 11, 2022)

Must be a little tricky to obtain spalting versus rot?


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## Trob115 (Apr 11, 2022)

I never have tried spalting hackberry, but have had some pretty good success with black cherry and persimmon. I put the logs in a shaded area that was pretty damp in May, and about by October of the same year, had good spalting in both. I have heard of people covering with plastic as @Karl_TN mentioned above.


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## Greenacres2 (Apr 12, 2022)

There’s some actual science done on spalting at Oregon State University…

We’ve had Dr. Seri Robinson as a guest demo/speaker (remote) at our turning club. She has developed cultures & spores to accelerate and control spalting along with adding color. Fascinating person to listen to, especially on some of the history of wood art. 

As a young turner she loved splatted wood but had severe mold allergies—so she started researching to learn what she could work with. There’s a group from our club that may experiment with her methods and spores. Worth a video search!!

Reactions: Informative 1


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## Mr. Peet (Apr 12, 2022)

Greenacres2 said:


> There’s some actual science done on spalting at Oregon State University…
> 
> We’ve had Dr. Seri Robinson as a guest demo/speaker (remote) at our turning club. She has developed cultures & spores to accelerate and control spalting along with adding color. Fascinating person to listen to, especially on some of the history of wood art.
> 
> As a young turner she loved splatted wood but had severe mold allergies—so she started researching to learn what she could work with. There’s a group from our club that may experiment with her methods and spores. Worth a video search!!


Links to that video are on WoodBarter, but they were posted years ago. It is always neat to see how the circle repeats from time to time.


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## Albert Kiebert (Apr 12, 2022)

RexB said:


> Hi all,
> My brother wants to cut down 2 Hackberry trees.
> One is 30ft tall by 18 inches in diameter. The other about the same.
> My questions are; what are they good for in turning as I've never turned it. What is best way to cut the chunks? What other considerations do I need to understand?
> Thanks to all.


Hackberry is a very nice wood to turn. Here is a link to a good video on how to cut sections for turning. If you make the center cut 3inches wide you will end up with pieces big enough for pepper mills. Also, I like to cut at least 2 inches longer than width to allow for drying checks. You can also just cut out the pith center and then have 2 larger bowls pieces. All ends and edges should be sealed with Anchorseal or water downed wood glue (what I use, a lot less expensive than Anchorseal)

Reactions: Useful 1


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## Albert Kiebert (Apr 12, 2022)

More ideals on cutting blanks

Reactions: Useful 1


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## Albert Kiebert (Apr 12, 2022)

Small 6” plate of spalted Hackberry

Reactions: EyeCandy! 3


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## bhatleberg (Apr 12, 2022)

Also looks good for small stuff.

Reactions: Like 3 | EyeCandy! 3


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## Trob115 (Apr 12, 2022)

And looks good on turkey calls

Reactions: Like 1 | EyeCandy! 1 | Way Cool 2


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## DLJeffs (Apr 12, 2022)

The small stuff can work well into a box...




and reel seat inserts ...

Reactions: Like 3 | EyeCandy! 3 | Great Post 1 | Way Cool 3


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## RexB (Apr 25, 2022)

Thank you. Will send this to my brother since I'm back from NC.
Did get this from him. Plus he said he had a couple of these that are 30 plus inches in diameter.

Reactions: Like 3 | EyeCandy! 1 | Way Cool 1


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