next project a handrailing in the cabin

[locust]

the railing will be made of hickory . all of it .BTW hickory is hard likely the hardest wood i have worked with

[Bob Riebe]

Well now, you just come up to Minn. and get hold of a nice piece of Ironwood (actually Hop Hornbeam) and you will find out what truly hardwood is.
You do not nail into it, you drill it first.

Fantastic for wood burning stoves though.

[Dee]

I made my back porch railing out of oil field pipe. It's harder than your ironwood. I didn't drill first. I welded it.

[Mule 11]

Dogwood is no walk in the park.

[locust]

hickory is so hard that the bark won't even fall off

[billy_56081]

Hackberry trees are like iron, have had sparks when trying to cut with a chainsaw.

[Dee]

Bois De Arc, aka Osage Orange (horse apple), will beat'em all. There are 200 year old houses, and even old churches, and courthouses sitting on Bois De Arc foundation posts.
It'll eat chainsaw chains, there are some 100 year old fence posts still doing their job.

[locust]

woops, we ran into a problem . it now going to be pine.

[oldandslow]

Tell you what, east Texas yellow pine is no slouch in the hard department. It is rated harder than many hardwoods. My dad bought an old farm house and tore it down for the lumber which was east Texas yellow pine to build his retirement home. Although he made his living as a farmer he was an accomplished carpenter and cabinet maker and was sought out for those skills during laid by time. I helped him build that home and that was before carbide saw blades became common. Sparks would fly when sawing a board with a skill saw or a table saw and blades dulled quickly. I was no slough with a hammer either but I could not believe how many nails I bent during that build. An air nailer would have been handy but I don't believe they were available either. I did some interior remodeling on it after my parents were gone and it became my daughter's. I resorted to drilling some nail holes on some of the work and in tight places just using wood screw instead of nails.

I like to work with mesquite which some call Texas ironwood. I have used a little Arizona ironwood and mesquite comes close to it in hardness, Both are very tough on cutting tools.

[Dee]

LOL, my favorite use of mesquite involves a smoker, and lord knows we've got plenty of mesquite wood.