# hickory moisture content



## 2walnuts (Aug 24, 2014)

I have access to some hickory that is air dried to 20% moisture content. I have noticed that some wood workers purchase hickory with a higher moisture content. I am wanting to try and make a baseball bat. The piece I am looking at is 3" x 3" x 37".
I have no experience working with hickory. Thanks for any guidance.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

The general rule for air drying is one year per inch of thickness. I would think you would want to try and get it down to 10 or 12% if possible. Even less would be better.


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## neville9999 (Jul 22, 2010)

So can anyone say if any USA Pool Cue manufacturers use Hickory in the shaft? The normal wood for cue shafts is AM Ash and Rock Maple and there may be some other timbers that USA Cue Manufacturers use so does anyone use Hickory? The air drying info is correct, an inch per year if the drying is not being forced. N


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

I'm pretty sure that Louisville Slugger makes their baseball bats out of ash but hickory might make a fair substitute.


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## BernieW (Sep 12, 2006)

I think it would be ok for a bat but I definitely would try to get the moisture down to at least 10%. I have made a couple of bats from maple and ash for my grandson and the moisture in those woods was 6% on the maple and 8% on the ash.


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## neville9999 (Jul 22, 2010)

Hickory seems to be a super strong wood and there are some things that I have learned, one is that there are many Hickorys including the Pecan, they used to make golf club shafts out of it so which one was used for golf club shafts?, it is also used to make handles for sledge hammers, I don't know if it is used for Pool cues in the USA or not, if it is then it will be the hickory species that was used for the golf club shafts, but there is anouther big problem that makes all this useless. No one imports any Hickory into Australia, let alone imports which ever Hickory was used for the Golf Club Shafts, this is a problem where there is no solution for me. N


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