Question about fresh cut Hickory

if the insect damage is old and not active I wouldn't worry about it myself. OTOH since this is freshly cut and I assume you mean green then you ought to plan to let it dry for at least a year. Green wood will be bitter and won't smoke properly or at least I've always been told that!

you must have a log splitter! I have a 3' piece of hickory trunk that has been drying for 16 months now and I still can't get an axe buried enough to start splitting. It was a live tree knocked down in a storm.

I'm with Panhandle Smoker...mostly.

I wouldn't worry about insects. They'll "smoke" long before you put your meat on, if you let the chunks burn for more than a minute. Even if not, there's not enough mass there to do anything negative.

As for drying...I prefer my wood a little green. I don't think there's anything you can throw on a fire that smokes better than freshly cut hickory twigs. My second choice would be freshly split hickory that is still noticeably moist. And contrary to much you will read, I think bark is a bonus, not a detriment.

RRP,

KntroverC is right. Get a wedge and a sledgehammer and cut your 3' section into thirds it at 12".

hic...

BBQEd wrote:

I have about 100# of 3" - 4" diameter branches ~8" long each that have been drying in the shed for just over a year. I tried to remove the bark on them and it's just too hard. I guess keeping the bark on isn't all bad?

Not in my book, and beside that, you'll never get it off now. That small trunk and/or branch bark is TIGHT once the natural moisture leaves -- which is a few weeks after it's cut.

Most likely they are Locus borers. They are a whitish worm that "eats" hickory. They are the larvae of the Long-horned beetle. They borrow channels through hickory and can do a lot of damage to hickory trees. If you don't have any close by I would not worry about that.

As for smoking your wood is fine. I have them in my stash of hickory they burn up by time the Egg is ready for meat.

When i split the wood my son gathers them up to use them for fishing. The bluegill love them and they are tuff little suckers. You can get 6 to 10 fish with each of them.

I use hickory from the time it is cut until it is gone. Takes about a year to use up a tubs worth. I never noticed a difference from green to dried. (except burns up faster dried) I use it with bark on.



The bottom of a rubbermaid tub has over a 1/4 inch of sawdust from them after a years time.

the only hickory i even bother with any more is the bark from shagbark hickory. peels off the tree, no need to split or cure.

sweeter than any other wood i've found.

bark is fine, so is green wood. any claims otherwise are just things guys repeat that "a friend told them" one time at a cookout.

hahahaha

ever see a roadside bbq joint tossing logs into a pit? you think they screw around debarking twenty cords of wood a year?