HICKORY - COMMERCIAL WOOD There are a number of species of hickory; but those of greatest commercial importance are five, as follows: Shellbark (Hicoria laciniosa), shagbark (Hicoria ovata), mockernut (Hicoria alba), bitternut (Hicoria minima), and pignut (Hicoria glabra). The pecan (Hicoria pecan) is also a hickory, and is used to some extent for the same purposes as the other species.
The, hickories, with the exception of black locust and osage orange, are the heaviest, strongest, and toughest of our native woods. It is the remarkable toughness of hickory, and its ability to withstand shocks, that make it the wood above all others for vehicle work.
All the hickories are used in the manufacture of vehicles, handles, and other articles where strength and toughness are the main consideration; but pignut perhaps possesses these properties in greater degree than any of the other species.
The factory uses of hickory are indicated in Table 87.
Table 87 Factory Uses of Hickory Purpose Per CentVehicles 61 Handles 31 Agricultural Implements 3 Sporting and Athletic Goods 1 Other Uses 4 Total 100A great deal of hickory, instead of being man* ufactured into lumber, goes in bolt form directly to the factory in which it is to be fashioned into some useful article. According to the reports, hickory enters more or less into the construction of : Agricultural implements Baseball bats Axles (light vehicles) Binder parts Baskets Board rules Bottoms (wagon boxes) Neck yokes (vehicles) Brake bars Patterns Cabinet work Pike poles Calking hammers Pins Canes Picture molding Car repairing Picker sticks Car construction Pick handles Carvings Pitmans (farm implements) Chairs Plow beams Corn binder parts Plow handles Crossbars (light vehicles) Poles (light vehicle) Crutches Rake teeth Cultivator handles Refrigerators Doubletrees Revolving rakes Dowels Rims (automobile wheels) Eveners (farm implements) Rims (vehicle wheels) Felloes Road-scrapers Freight cars Shafts (vehicle) Gear woods (light vehicles) Singletrees Golf sticks (handles) Sledge handles Hammer handles Small tool handles Handles Spokes (automobile) Handles (broom) Spokes (light and heavy Handles (edge tools) vehicles) Hay baler parts Spring bars (light vehicles) Hay loader parts Sucker rods Header parts Threshing machines Hounds (heavy vehicles) Tongues (light vehicles) Ladders Tongues (wagon) Ladder rungs Tongues (wheel scrapers) Log rules Trapeze (gymnasium) Machinery handles Trucks Mallets Trunk slats Manure spreader parts Turnings Maul handles Wagon stock Molds (brick) Wagon Jacks Neck yokes (implement) Whiffletrees Neck yokes (plows) Windmill rods