ID Hickory and oak

[rio_grande]

Man I am almost ashamed to admit this,,, I can Id hickory and oak when it is standing but once cut and split,,,,,,, I cant tell what is what,,,, I have looked online and havent had good results.... So can somebody school this old hillbilly in how to ID these woods by looking at the slits.

 

[flash]

Well, the oak I use usually has a furrowed bark. The Hickory does not.
I also think the Hickory is a more dense hardwood than oak is.

 

[eaglewing]

Splitting hickory and oak are completely different. Hickory just wants to shred apart real tough like, where oak will split more clean.

The center of hickory logs can get real red and white as it goes out to the bark. Oak is more uniform in color.

You can also SMELL the difference when either cutting the logs up for chunks (I use a chop saw for this, oak is real distinct in smell) or when just taking a match to a small splinter of the wood... you should be able to tell the unique smell of hickory that way.

I know what you mean tho, I tried looking the same question up on the internet about a month ago and got NOTHING informative.