Hickory rides the rustic wave

Hickory (Carya ovata), also known as shagbark or true hickory, is gaining popularity due to its rustic aesthetics and budget-friendly price, according to suppliers interviewed by Woodshop News.

Known for its multi-tone appearance and high durability, it’s a top pick for flooring, mantles, countertops and cabinets.

“Our hickory sales have been up a little bit, more than anything for countertops and tabletops in the 8/4 thickness,” says Clint Dillon of Steve Wall Lumber in Mayodan, N.C. “We’ve also seen a slight uptick in it for lumber and plywood in cabinets. In the last few months, we’ve had more people interested in the character-grade cabinets than the painted.”

“Hickory is something we like and our customers like. It’s very solid, it mills pretty well, and we love the coloring on it. It usually has that rustic feel to it,” says Dave Norman of Parkerville Wood Products in Manchester, Conn., who makes a point to educate customers on how to work with the wood’s color variations to bring proper visual flow to a room.

“It’s a frustrating wood to work with because of the coloring, though. Sometimes a board is all brown, or all white, or you get that mixture of white and brown, which can sound good but when you’re doing a kitchen, then all of a sudden you have one kitchen door all white and one all brown, so you really have to spend some time laying it out.

“You want to alternate your growth rings, but the way the trees grow, the white grows to one side, generally, so it can be tricky trying to get enough where you can get a consistent pattern. It depends on what you’re using it for. On mantles it’s great, but you usually can’t get it over 8/4 thick so you’re going to have a thinner mantle. We’ve done a handful of box mantles that are miter folded, so you can create something that looks like a solid piece but it’s not; it’s hollow on the inside. That’s a nice look because the rustic thing is really in.”

Chad Muterspaw of CR Muterspaw Lumber in Xenia, Ohio, has seen an uptick in sales on the commercial end.

“Rustic hickory is used more these days than what I ever remember it being. It seems like a lot of the rustic is actually going into flooring, and then we’ve got a few cabinet shops that use it (for) panels and raised panels where they can leave some of the knots and character,” says Muterspaw.

“Hickory’s been a strong mover on the commercial side. On the retail side, I feel like it’s intimidating for some of the beginning woodworkers because it’s so hard and dense that they’ll steer clear of it. But our bigger commercial shops use quite a bit of it.”

Averaged retail prices for 4/4 hickory were quoted at $3.60/bf for rustic and $5.90/bf for select. 

This article was originally published in the March 2024 issue.