Hickory price per board foot
Plan on about $4.95 a board foot for 4/4 stock at U.S. retail (our 2026-08 estimate — your yard gets the final word). A typical board, 6″ wide and 8′ long, will run you around $19.80.
When Americans wanted to say a man was unbreakable, they named him after this tree — Andrew Jackson was 'Old Hickory,' and the compliment was botanically accurate. Hickory is the strongest common hardwood on the continent: wagon wheels, axe handles, ladder rungs, drumsticks, and the smoke on half the barbecue you've ever eaten. The lumber trade sells it mixed with pecan, its botanical sibling, and nobody can reliably tell them apart. Not even the mills.
The toughest common domestic — tool handles and rustic cabinets. Hard on edges and prone to tearout; dramatic contrast between heart and sap.
Hickory at a glance
| Price per board foot | $4.95 (2026-08) |
| Weight, dry | 50 lb/ft³ · 4.2 lb per BF |
| Janka hardness | 1,880 lbf |
| Shrinkage, green → oven-dry | 10.5% tangential · 7.0% radial |
| Cost of 10 BF | $49.50 |
| Cost of 25 BF | $123.75 |
What common thicknesses cost
Same 6″ × 8′ board, priced by rough thickness (thicker stock often carries a small premium on top of this — figured on volume alone):
| Thickness | Board feet | Cost | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4/4 | 4.0 | $19.80 | 17 lb |
| 6/4 | 6.0 | $29.70 | 25 lb |
| 8/4 | 8.0 | $39.60 | 33 lb |
| 12/4 | 12.0 | $59.40 | 50 lb |
Will it stay flat?
All that toughness comes with a temper. Hickory moves a lot with the seasons and stores real tension — boards can pinch the saw mid-rip and spring when they clear the blade. Sharp blades, slow feed, and a splitter aren't suggestions here.
The measured numbers: drying from green, hickory shrinks about 10.5% across a flatsawn board's width (tangential) and 7.0% across quartersawn (radial) — that ratio is why the two cuts behave so differently in your house.
Buying hickory without regrets
The bold brown-and-white 'calico' mix is standard, not a defect — and rustic-grade calico hickory is one of the cheapest routes to a kitchen that stops visitors mid-sentence. Color-sorted stock exists for calmer tastes, at calmer-tastes prices.
At the finishing bench
Finish it clear and let the contrast do the talking. Fair warning: hickory is so dense that stain mostly sits on top — expect a lighter result than the sample chip promised.
Sources & further reading
Prices vary with region, grade, width, and figure. Cheaper neighbor: Aromatic Red Cedar ($4.85). A step up: Sassafras ($5.25).