Does Blonde Hickory Hardwood actually exist??

9 years ago

I'm freaking out a little right now - our hardwood floors were just dropped off to acclimate. They're still in bundles and upside down, so I can't really see the faces of any of the boards but one.

The one tiny board I could pull out looks blonde enough, but the rest of the boards seem to have quite a bit of heartwood in them. The sample from the mill was 100% blonde - no heartwood but now I'm wondering if this is even possible?? The only examples I can find on the internet are laminate knock-offs.

I was really hoping to avoid the rustic look of the hickory but still retain the hardness and light color of the blonde wood. I guess the horse is out of the barn regardless, I'm not sending this stuff back but I might make some different choices regarding stains on cabinets etc depending on what I learn.

Called the flooring guy in a panic and he thinks the fronts of all the boards will be blonde because that's how they grade them. Has anybody seen 100% blonde 5" hickory hardwoods before?

This post was edited by Swentastic on Wed, Aug 6, 14 at 10:37

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Comments (5)

lazy_gardens
9 years ago
Looking at the backs, I see very little "wild" swirly grain and no knots. I do see some shade variation, but that's to be expected.

From my experience with oak ... the backs are less uniform than the fronts, because the first grading machine flips it "better side up" before it goes into the tongue and groove maker. A knot that doesn't go through ends up on the bottom.

And another grading machine can distinguish "uniform" from "wild" grain by the variation in color in a single board. More than "X" and it shunts the board off to the wild side, less than "X" and it's a different (higher) grade.
Swentastic Swenson
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks lazygardens - I feel a little better because most of the hickory floors I do not like are actually character grade. At least the clear grade won't have all the mineral streaks and knots. I'm not thrilled with the dark parts though as I thought that's what I was avoiding by ordering the blonde.

I'm not sure I'm going to get the answer I want. I just called the distributor who actually ordered the wood and they said no, we'd have to order 2 or 3 times as much wood to get 100% blonde. They told me this batch is 40:60 lights to darks.

Thank BUDDHA we got all 5" planks - I can't imagine how wild this would look in variable widths to boot. We almost went as narrow as 2 1/4.
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lazy_gardens
9 years ago
Talk to the installer and make sure he mixes up the planks between bundles, or do a dry (without nails) layout to get the color variations spread around a bit.
gregmills_gw
9 years ago
It wont hurt anything if you open a bundle or two.
Swentastic Swenson
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks Lazygardens and Gregmills - I will ask him to mix up the bundles that's a good suggestion.

I opened up an entire bundle last night and laid them out. Granted, it was almost all dark wood lol but I really think the floors will be gorgeous regardless. I see quite a few bundles with all white planks, too. I'm also going to ask if he can limit the short boards to the closets and edges - hopefully that'll work out with the amount of material we have.