Ouch! These are really sharp!

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timusp40

timusp40

Feeling the Heat
Feb 3, 2010
266
Lake Orion, Michigan
Picked up this free wood today from a tree sxervice. They said it was Locust. I have never had any of this before. It splits very nice, but has thorns that are sharp enough to go thru leather gloves! It is also pretty heavy. Took 2 trips with my old 1/2 ton GMC.
 

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That's some nice looking black locust.
 
Yes that is definitely nice black locust. The piece of wood laying on its side in the middle picture (in the background) is the dead giveaway that it's bl. locust. I burned locust for the first time a few years ago and it's very dense even when it's completly dry. As a result, the BTU rating on this is through the roof. I've burned all mine and miss throwing a big piece in and letting it go for quite some time. Perfect to put in the stove before you hit the hay!
 
You think black locust has some big thorns? Well honey locust they are like swords!! I had a couple BIG clusters of these thorns fly into my leg as I ran along the trunk with the saw cleaning branches off when I was cutting some big ones down last summer, and they HURT!! Strong enough to flatten tires too!!
 

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rayg said:
Looks like you could use them for nails Scotty.
Click to expand...
I'm thinking you could use them for home security. Lay them inside all your doors and windowsills at night, guarantee whoever falls on them things won't be back!!
 
Nice catch of Black Locust! It's one of the hottest burning woods! I just got myself a bunch of it to. Burns GREAT and HOT! You may want to start your burn with something else to get the locust burning well, it can be somewhat harder to start than other wood.
 
I have cut 4 cords of Black Locust in the last year and never seen a thorn. What's up with that?
 
Flatbedford said:
I have cut 4 cords of Black Locust in the last year and never seen a thorn. What's up with that?
Click to expand...
I've cut some BL before that had lots of thorns, and some that had no thorns at all, too. Seems like most of the BL around here where we live has poison ivy as a neighbor, almost everytime we do BL we get into the poison ivy. Not really sure why that is, maybe regional?
 
Huh...I think we picked up a few pieces of that yesterday. I was wondering what the heck it was, it's HEAVY. I was going to post pics for an ID but it got buried by some pine we picked up after it. We've got several BL growing at the Old House but we only planted them @8 or so years ago, so they aren't really that huge yet.

We drive past a hedge row of honey locust when we go to the hardware store. Those thorns are something else. I agree, they would make great home security trees.
 
Flatbedford said:
I have cut 4 cords of Black Locust in the last year and never seen a thorn. What's up with that?
Click to expand...

1. There are thornless cultivars.
2. On many BL trees thorns only appear when very young or in new growth on mature trees.
 
Scotty Overkill said:
You think black locust has some big thorns? Well honey locust they are like swords!! I had a couple BIG clusters of these thorns fly into my leg as I ran along the trunk with the saw cleaning branches off when I was cutting some big ones down last summer, and they HURT!! Strong enough to flatten tires too!!
Click to expand...

Scotty,
No thanks! That stuff is devilish looking.
Tim
 
Flatbedford said:
I have cut 4 cords of Black Locust in the last year and never seen a thorn. What's up with that?
Click to expand...

Steve, Scotty,
There were 4 trees in this lot that they took down, but I only found the thorns on a few branches on one of them. Can't say more because this is my first time getting the stuff.
Tim
 
maybe the ones with the thorns are male trees? ha
 
artmos said:
maybe the ones with the thorns are male trees? ha
Click to expand...

Females.
 
TreePointer said:
Flatbedford said:
I have cut 4 cords of Black Locust in the last year and never seen a thorn. What's up with that?
Click to expand...

1. There are thornless cultivars.
2. On many BL trees thorns only appear when very young or in new growth on mature trees.
Click to expand...

There are thornless cultivars of honeylocust (e.g. shademaster locust) but I haven't heard of any cultivars of black locust (but there could be!)

On black locust the thorns are only on the small twigs, not the trunk. Honeylocust, however, they are everywhere! I don't like to fool with it, I don't want the thorns in my tires or in the horse's hooves. I had a bulldozer take some out a few years back, no worry about flat tires there ;-)

Ken
 
Ken45 said:
TreePointer said:
Flatbedford said:
I have cut 4 cords of Black Locust in the last year and never seen a thorn. What's up with that?
Click to expand...

1. There are thornless cultivars.
2. On many BL trees thorns only appear when very young or in new growth on mature trees.
Click to expand...

There are thornless cultivars of honeylocust (e.g. shademaster locust) but I haven't heard of any cultivars of black locust (but there could be!)

On black locust the thorns are only on the small twigs, not the trunk. Honeylocust, however, they are everywhere! I don't like to fool with it, I don't want the thorns in my tires or in the horse's hooves. I had a bulldozer take some out a few years back, no worry about flat tires there ;-)

Ken
Click to expand...

There thornless cultivars of both species. Robinia pseudoacacia cv. 'Bessoniana' is thornless.

A couple years ago I had to repair two different tractor tires within one week because of black locust thorns. :mad:
 
I have 12 pallets stacked 6 feet high of this fine wood seasoning now......not much compares to it....kind of running low on what I had seasoned for this winter and have been burning some other wood and I keep thinking my insert is working that great....its just the wood. Never pass that up.
 
TreePointer said:
There thornless cultivars of both species. Robinia pseudoacacia cv. 'Bessoniana' is thornless.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I learned something new :)


A couple years ago I had to repair two different tractor tires within one week because of black locust thorns. :mad:
Click to expand...

Wow! I never thought they were big enough to penetrate a tractor tire. What happened?

Ken
 
Those honey locast try to take over. I have some on my property line and they spread fast. I came home one day and the farmer
was cutting them down. One tree was about 25 or 30 years old. He Then drug it back to his woods. It kind of upset me that he
cut it without asking and wasn't sure of the property line. I'm not sure where the exact line is becouse I didn't pay for a survey when I bought the place. He could have at least offered me the wood. The farmer dont actually own the land and I know for a fact
he don't Know were the line is. They make a nice shade tree and get very large. My neighbor has a few huge ones in his yard.
 
Please be careful around those thorns, the very fine tip can break off in a wound, leaving you with a nasty infection.

On another note they were also used as sewing needles.
 
woodsmaster said:
Those honey locast try to take over. I have some on my property line and they spread fast. I came home one day and the farmer
was cutting them down. One tree was about 25 or 30 years old. He Then drug it back to his woods. It kind of upset me that he
cut it without asking and wasn't sure of the property line. I'm not sure where the exact line is becouse I didn't pay for a survey when I bought the place. He could have at least offered me the wood. The farmer dont actually own the land and I know for a fact
he don't Know were the line is. They make a nice shade tree and get very large. My neighbor has a few huge ones in his yard.
Click to expand...

If you like them so much, you are welcome to come get mine! Just make sure you take all the thorns with you.

If you don't know where the property line is, why do you feel that he should have asked you?

Ken
 
Ken45 said:
TreePointer said:
There thornless cultivars of both species. Robinia pseudoacacia cv. 'Bessoniana' is thornless.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I learned something new :)


A couple years ago I had to repair two different tractor tires within one week because of black locust thorns. :mad:
Click to expand...

Wow! I never thought they were big enough to penetrate a tractor tire. What happened?

Ken
Click to expand...

The little guys got me! The thorns on the young saplings I've seen are a little longer than that which appears on more mature trees. Here's a pic from one of our fields (sorry for the poor quality):

bl_locust_sapling005.jpg
 
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