Old Pecan Gotchas?

[Fibonacci]

I was asked about making a set of pens for a local out of some pecan from the 60s. His father made a table from a pecan tree from the family farm. It went to one of the kids in 2005 who left it outside until now, causing the top to split and ruining it.

The guy I know got the pieces and wants a couple sets of pens made out of the wood. Are there any particular gotchas I should be watching for on this wood? The piece I got is .75 x 3.5 x 16, so there is plenty to make a couple mistakes. It looks like it has some surface checking, but nothing very deep.

Ant thoughts?

 

[Justturnin]

I just turned a pen out of Pecan (aka Pecancrete). It is hard but that is it. Mine was a cross cut and I had one large chunk fly out but other than that no different than any other hardwood.

 

[sbwertz]

I have made some pens from a 100 year old tree that was cut down last year. No problems other than being hard as a rock.

 

[Fibonacci]

Cool.

He wants a CA finish, so I figured I would give it a CA bath before getting too ambitious to help the checking.

 

[fritz64]

pecan and hickery are in the same family group,HARDwood.