Pecan and Hickory

[Goo]

I heard a rumor that Pecan and Hickory are basically the same thing so I did a google search and came up with same genus different species.  what do the more experienced members think?

[alacran]

In the cabinet making industry Pecan and Hickory are interchangeable. Pecan tends to have more figure in some cases but for the most part it's looks are hard to distinguish from Hickory. So that may be where you got the "rumor".

[tallbear]

Goo

Alacran is correct.When I owned a cabinet business all my hardwood suppliers lumped them together.Unless you know the sawmill or are in an area where pecan is prevalent  and the dealer knows the source you could get either or when ordering with hickory being more common particularly here in the Northeast.

Mitch

[okawbow]

Pecan, I believe is more brittle than some types of hickory. It doesn’t work as well for bows or ramrods. Pignut or shagbark hickory are good for both.

[Old Time Hunter]

Years ago my father was given some  wild pecan limbs , he grafted them on a hickory tree. He got pecans off those limbs while the rest of the tree produced hickory nuts.

[DanL]

We also created some Hickans by grafting pecans onto hickories. There are some graft incompatibilities due to growth rates....

Ok, back on track. Hickory will cooperate better when splitting. Pecan can be less than cooperative when it comes to splitting.

[elkhorne]

All,
I believe from my experience with pecan, I have 7 pecan trees on my place, pecan can be very brittle especially when it is dry. We have been very hot down here in Louisiana this summer but have gotten a fair mount of rain up to now. We had a storm come through last week that had quite a bit of wind but not bad enough to drop anything but small dead limbs on the area under them. I was grilling for the kids last week and heard a cracking sound but nothing fell. Well, last night with a no wind situation, when I went out this morning, there was about a 20’ limb with a base of about 10” diameter down in my day pen and it smashed a steel tube panel to my round pen almost to the ground! Without any high winds, I was amazed at how a large limb of that size could just snap and fall. Lost about a gallon of great pecans as they are about half grown right now. I use pecan limbs of various sizes for my smoker. They break very easily when dry and I can’t imagine a ramrod of pecan, if you could find one with straight runout, could not be in danger of snapping with a tight patch and ball load. Certainly ideas to ponder.

[JBJ]

Guys,
Check out these two sources of info regarding wood properties in general. The first site may give you a better understanding of wood strength in general (https://workshopcompanion.com/KnowHow/Design/Nature_of_Wood/3_Wood_Strength/3_Wood_Strength.htm#strength)
while the second site will allow you to compare a huge number of species (https://www.wood-database.com/common-name). As Okawbow indicated, not all hickories are the same and, while the lumber trade may lump pecan and the hickories  into the same category as a cabinet or furniture wood, they are different. They occupy the same genus taxonomically, but when you start considering ramrods and bows, they are not equivalent and even within a genus the comparison breaks down. Have fun! 

J.B.