Hickory has a light reddish color, with light to dark
brown spots or streaks running through the lumber. If you're looking for
a stair tread to stain or finish naturally, without any color
variations, you will need to look somewhere else. Hickory is also
considered one of the harder, hardwoods.
However there are stair tread manufacturers who will
cut the Hickory into smaller strips and only glue the premium pieces
together, to create a spectacular stair tread that can be stained or
finish naturally. Hickory is also used for barbecues, smoking meats and
makes an excellent firewood.
Gluing = Excellent, Hickory is a great wood to glue together, as long as
you use a high quality adhesive, you shouldn't have any problems.
Sanding = Good Luck, this is one of the harder woods and it's going to
be difficult to sand or cut. Some of the harder woods, will be extremely
difficult to work with, unless you have the right power tools.
Staining = Excellent, this is a fantastic wood to stain and really
creates a fantastic stair tread.
Nailing = Good Luck, like I said earlier, this is one of the harder
woods and you will need to pre-drill each one of your nail or screw
holes. Some of these hardwoods actually feel like they're made out of
metal, simply because they're so tough.
Wear And Tear = Excellent, since Hickory is one of the harder woods
available on the market today, you can plan on relatively little wear
and tear. Whenever you run into a hardwood that's difficult to nail or
sand, you've practically found the ideal stair tread, even though you
might think twice before using it for anything else.
