My new favorite wood

black or honey? the locust we have around here is mainly honey. you earn your heat when cutting up honey as it is very thorny but it does burn good, long and hot.

I have Black Locusts growing but in the wrong spot, my leeching field.
I cut them down every other year but they are too small to screw with and I just pile them up and burn them outside.

Maybe I should try transplanting them? They grow FAST

Black Locust does sucker. In this area it is the first tree to sprout up after you clear land, and it grows significantly faster than anything else. Its called the Shipmast tree, because it was used for... you guessed it, ship masts. Very strong, fairly straight central trunk, and quick to grow. We have tons of it here because, allegedly, the English who settled here after 1640 planted a ton of it. They actually shipped much of it back to Europe for use there. Probably 75% of what I burn here is Locust, smells like crap when you burn it, but lasts long, and gives great coals. In my opinion, it burns better than oak. Wonderful stuff.

-- Mike

I have a special stash of black locust just waiting for it to really get cold. It is dry as a bone. Come on weatherman, show me what you got!

Thanks for that Dylan

This spring one of my projects it to clear and SHALLOW roto-till that spot and plant some of that stuff deer like
Clover and such

Hi Warren I like the sound of that locust. I have never burned any in my insert but I will be next year. The logs on the left are locust, next to the mountain ash. I mean the small mountain of white ash. The stack of oak is for this year. I get warm just looking at it!!

Glad you guy's say it's so good i have 5 cords ready to burn after i use up a little more maple and
another 6cords i just had drop off to be bucked and split for next year. Thanks for the info!!

I'll burn locust for nightime. One other wood that is equal or better is osage orange. Doesn't get any better!

I have a few rounds of Eastern Hornbeam that feel heavier than my locust. I have a feeling they will do better than the locust, although not sure I'd notice the difference. I am keeping my eye out for more hornbeam. It feels like a chumk of concrete.

How did you get that ash there. Did big truck dump it. Thats a lot of wood.

I've got about 1.5 cords of black locust seasoned and ready to burn for this year. I read that it had one of, if not the highest BTUs per pound. After burning it for a few days I have to say that it burns longer and with more coals than anything I've burned over the last 10 years. I cut and split all of it and thought it was pretty easy to work with as well.

We have been bringing home our first hunks of locust this week. Although everyone (homeowners and tree cutter guy) assured me that they are locust, the grain looks so much like the elm we were getting in the same yard it makes me a bit nervous. I read up on locust, it says black locust is harder to split than honey locust. Homeowners did not plant the trees, so have no idea what variety they were. Any hints on how I can tell what kind of locust I have? I didn't notice any thorny parts. The bark is strangely ridged, so at least I can tell it apart from the elm when it is in my woodpile. We are avoiding any elm that needs splitting, but taking larger hunks of locust and maple. I could post a picture of the wood, but was wondering if anyone has advice on how to tell what kind of locust it is. Am worried about splitting it if it is black locust, that is supposed to be hard, not as bad as elm, but still challenging. I know there are other kinds of locusts as well, like we have a Sunburst locust, and I think its bark looks quite different, although I haven't really looked at it in years.

The ash came from a friend in the tree business. Great guy he will drop off wood as needed. All have to do is cut,split and stack works for me. The Hornbeam/Ironwood is one of the best woods to burn.

bruce56bb said:

black or honey? the locust we have around here is mainly honey. you earn your heat when cutting up honey as it is very thorny but it does burn good, long and hot.

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Yep , i have always called it thorny locust , awesome wood ..........just make sure your truck dont get too close and also have extra protection when working with this stuff.

bruce56bb said:

black or honey? the locust we have around here is mainly honey. you earn your heat when cutting up honey as it is very thorny but it does burn good, long and hot.

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That maybe good wood to burn , but they are NO FUN to climb and take down or prune. I HATE LOCUST TREES