Locust wood questions...pricing and Burn Factor

If you have to buy wood, atleast you are getting a premium species cut perfect for your stove, so I say why not buy it!
Now I think you should have 3-4 different species in your entire arsenal. I don't know what you have already. Right now I'm using black locust as part of a mix, so I am not over firing like some say you can if you solely use it, I will experiment with that one day. Black locust also smells funnnny when burning, less favorable in that aspect but definitely not a deal breaker. That's all the info I can give to your question. So yes buy it if you need to buy wood.....

I have not found it all that hard to get started, but I've only used it for reloading a hot stove so there's always been a bed of coals to help. $250 is probably a good price if it's actually a full cord and actually dry. My limited experience with purchased wood is that loads are often short and almost always wet, regardless of what the seller claims. If it's a full cord but not dry then it still might be a decent price but not something you can use this year.

Verify that it is a full cord and dry. For your area that does not sound like a bad price. When I have burned BL I put it in on some already hot coals and it burned fine. One of the very best firewoods for sure.

Been burning pure locust in a wood stove that was put up under roof facing south September 2012, so it's good and dry. Lights easily and burns nicely with a deep coal bed for reloading. I usually throw in some bits of kindling, a half dozen pieces twice as thick as my thumb, and the rest four or five inches wide and two inches thick.

As "Red Oak" has mentioned locust is premium would and to be sure you getting the quantity and seasoned wood as claimed, both are easy to verify. You can buy a moisture meter and re-split a couple pieces and measure the moisture on the freshly sliced sides (anything below 20% is generally seasoned). The quantity of course you can measure when you stack the load but that is after the fact. See if the seller delivers a stacked load (they stack it in their truck or trailer). This might be too much to ask for most companies use a loader for filling their trucks.

I was excited to try locust last year that I cut myself and was only seasoned for 10 months, yep, it was like a stove full of cobras with all the hissing going on, the heat was poor at best and needed the air open to stay lit (all the signs of green wood). On the other hand I burned some that was almost two years seasoned and had to mix it with other species to avoid overfiring the stove. Awesome wood, just not good unless it is truly seasoned in my opinion. Good luck!

Phoenix Hatchling said:

Anyone have pics of WELL seasoned locust?

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Pics aren't going to do much for you; no aspect of appearance is a reliable indicator of moisture content. Wood can be grey and cracked and still wet inside, or it can colorful and solid and be dry (e.g. your furniture). If you had experience with locust then you could probably just pick up a few pieces and get a sense of their weight and how they sound when knocked together, but your best bet is to re-split a few pieces and either poke them with a meter (preferable) or see whether you can perceive any hint of moisture by touching the interior surface to your cheek or some similarly sensitive bit of skin.

If it is truly 'seasoned' and truly a full cord, that seems like a very reasonable price in terms of $/BTU. I agree with splitting some pieces small for kindling for each reload to help it catch. The stuff can be so solid that it seems to take a few minutes to light well and the smoke is putrid.

ailanthus said:

...and the smoke is putrid.

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FWIW, that hasn't been my experience so far. It's very cold here today so I stuffed the stove with locust a little while ago and when I go outside to look at the stack there's no smoke and I can't smell anything. But then, the stovetop is at about 800F (!) so maybe the lack of smoke is no surprise.

Also worth mentioning is that locust doesn't necessarily burn hotter than other woods, but it does have more heating value and so has the potential to really get the stove going if you don't control the air carefully (as I failed to do today). The fact that it's dense and slow to get going is actually helpful, I think. If it started faster, I think it might be difficult to keep a lid on it. You definitely don't want to load a bunch of locust onto a bed of hot coals and then fall asleep with the air wide open.

Phoenix Hatchling said:

I certainly don't burn at 800 degrees as of yet.

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It wasn't intentional, but I've also unintentionally had my stove up to 900 a couple of times and nothing melted or exploded so I'm not too worried.

Phoenix Hatchling said:

Those hot temps are a result of the locust I would imagine?

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Yeah, the thing is that the initial offgassing phase of combustion where there's a lot of flame simply lasts for much longer than it does with less-dense woods, so if the wood heats up rapidly it can take a long time to slow that combustion down again. Dry pine will heat up fast too, but it also wears itself out a lot sooner.

Phoenix Hatchling said:

Kinda scary!

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I was terrified the first time it happened. Now I'm only mildly nervous.

Jon1270 said:

FWIW, that hasn't been my experience so far.

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Sorry to be unclear - I'm referring to the smoke before it begins to flame on reloads. Once it's going, no problem....

ailanthus said:

Sorry to be unclear - I'm referring to the smoke before it begins to flame on reloads

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I think it was my imprecision rather than any lack of clarity on your part.

Down to a comfortable 745F now. The chill has certainly been knocked out of the room.

Phoenix Hatchling said:

Anyone have pics of WELL seasoned locust? I already have a mix of asst hardwoods that I would cut it with.

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Here you go, two splits freshly re-split just now, outside and inside of each. One pair is so green it's still slippery under the bark, the other is a 14 months high and dry. Which is which?

I just started gathering/processing my own wood in January and this is my 3rd season burning. I'm in CT too and pay $250 for a good hardwood mix delivered -oak, maple, locust, etc. It usually comes in at just above a cord.

I'm probably only going to have to buy one cord to supplement what I have this year, but I'd JUMP at the chance to pay $250 for all BL if it was truly seasoned and truly a cord!

Phoenix Hatchling said:

Going by the checking on the ends, I would say the two on the left are 14 months.

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Agree - looks like the bark is starting to separate, too.

ailanthus said:

Agree - looks like the bark is starting to separate, too.

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I cheated.

The piece on the left is from a log that was left laying in a wet spot through the summer and the end was exposed to the sun, hence the graying and checking. The log sent down roots and was still leafed out and alive when I cut and split it in September. That spot on the far end where the bark is gone end was wet and slippery today.

I cut the end off the piece in the right to get rid of any graying.

That being said, I chucked all four pieces into the stove on top of good bed of coals and and it's all blue flames and no smoke now!

From my experience with BL. It is a three year seasoning wood. One or two years and you do have to burn something else with it. Well seasoned BL will burn all by itself, but it does burn very hot and that's why a lot of folks mix it, including me. That price is well worth it, as long as it's what the seller has stated. I never thought I'd ever say 250.00 a cord was a good price but...

Jon1270 said:

Also worth mentioning is that locust doesn't necessarily burn hotter than other woods, but it does have more heating value and so has the potential to really get the stove going if you don't control the air carefully (as I failed to do today). The fact that it's dense and slow to get going is actually helpful, I think. If it started faster, I think it might be difficult to keep a lid on it. You definitely don't want to load a bunch of locust onto a bed of hot coals and then fall asleep with the air wide open.

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Yeah you might find that stove jumping up and down when you wake up!

I burn bone dry locust and have learned to load it not so full and cut it back sooner...now I mix in in with the soft maple and that makes a nice balance...price seems ok...

Phoenix Hatchling said:

Now I wonder how Ipe would burn.......

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Expensively.