Found throughout the Eastern US, Hickory is a very dense, open pore wood.  Used more for lumber than veneer, select logs are sliced and yield very handsome veneers.  The heartwood is a light grey brown and the sapwood is generally white.  Some logs, depending on actual growing region can also have a little red mixed in.

Pecan and Hickory are very similar to one another, and even share the same genus: Carya.  Although Pecan is more typically found in the lower Mississippi River Valley.  The coloration is the same, and both are sold interchangeably most of the time.

In this photo we see a heavily character marked or distressed example.