Date: 2011-06-01
Gene Wengert, ewengert@wisc.edu
The poor man’s oak, ash or elm?
There are two trees, hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) and sugarberry (Celtis laevigata), that produce the lumber known as hackberry. That is, in the trade that the names hackberry and sugarberry are used interchangeably. Sometimes the lumber from these species is called sugar hackberry. We will use the name hackberry here, but will be referring to both species. The species grows from North Dakota to Texas to North Caroline to Quebec, but the Southern states seem to have the best supply. Trees are often over 100 feet tall, although 75 feet is more common. The berries are edible, but because they are so high, the birds have their feast before they can be harvested.
Hackberry is a lumber species that does not stand on its own too often. Rather, it has been used as a substitute for red oak, ash or elm. Indeed, hackberry has strong grain and porous structure, so it is quite similar to these other three species.
Perhaps the greatest detriment to using hackberry is that it stains (fungal stains and chemical enzymatic oxidation gray stains) very quickly. Logs that have been held in warm weather or lumber that has not been promptly stacked and dried aggressively right after sawing will almost have high staining risk. Careless lumber producers will produce mostly “paint grade” hackberry because of the stain. However, with reasonable care, hackberry is a beautiful wood, worth of the high prices paid for the better grades or ash and elm.
Updated: Sep 11, 2011
This article appeared in CabinetMakerFDM, September 2011. ©Copyright 2012, All Rights Reserved.