Huge Hickory Becomes Beautiful Salad Bowls

Last year a huge hickory tree behind our cottage died suddenly. It was over 36” wide at the base and very, very tall. To make things interesting, it was only 20’ from the cottage and was leaning that way. I hired a professional tree guy to take it down. It was fascinating watching him perform his craft. At one point he had five ropes attached to it and tied off to other trees. He had to top it, then cut it into twenty five foot sections.

The tree was straight as a stick for forty or fifty feet with only small branches.. This tree grew in the woods with trees on three sides. As soon as it was on the ground, I was drooling about the possibilities. I cut one butt section to make bowls and saved two sections for quartersawing on the sawmill. The rest of the tree will become smaller bowls and firewood.

The bowl below is one of the medium sized salad bowls turned from the butt. I was very pleasantly surprised with the spalting and the mineral staining. I cored all four “halves” and wound up with twelve green bowls. The bigger bowls need a few more months to dry. I will finish turn them early next year.

#2025 Spalted Hickory Wooden Salad Bowl

#2025 Spalted Hickory Wooden Salad Bowl