New Score for 2015/16! Looks like Black Locust?

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BigCountryNY

BigCountryNY

Burning Hunk
Sep 16, 2014
233
Putnam Valley, NY
A colleague of mine has a park in his community that had several trees fall down about 6 months ago. Surprisingly, none of the residents came to pick up what the community didn't have put into the wood chipper...:mad:

We bucked up most of what was handy and made some big splits for easier transporting. It looks like Black Locust to me, but there were no branches or leaves to tell for sure. Any thoughts?

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Cburke said:
Yea it looks like locust. Extremely dense heavy wood. Good find! Produces some nice coals. Get that drying like oak 2-3 years in my experience.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reassurance! I was fairly certain, but there's not a lot of locust where I've lived for the past dozen or so years before moving to NY. It's definitely very dense and heavy for sure. Biggest rounds we bucked today were 22" diameter and were a workout to split into manageable sizes to transport in our SUVs. As if I wasn't sold on it already, I was resold today on my Fiskars X27 as my colleague was not having as much fun with his wedge and sledge!

I'm seasoning on pavement and concrete up off the ground, so with a little luck this stuff might be ready for next year - but time will tell.
 
Nice score . Put some 4x4's or pallets down to stack on . That's some hot burning stuff==c!
 
I came across some free 2x6s at my local HD, so made 8 foot racks out of them for stacking and they work pretty well. Here's a pic of them early on, however now there are more stacks and they are top covered: :)

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Yep, definitely black locust. Looks like some of the bark is falling off already. I did a couple cords of it this year, and what a mess! In the future I'll try to remove as much bark as I can before I haul it out. Unless it's the free roadside variety - then I might have to load up the Saturn and deal with the mess later!

Amazing how fast those things can grow. Counted about 50 rings on that round - pretty young for a 22" tree. I have one in my little "orchard" clearing, that's now over 6 feet tall - and I think it sprouted from a seed this year. It wasn't there this spring.
 
6 feet in less than half a year? That's impressive! I'll definitely have to plant some on my property. I have mostly Oak, Maple, American Beech, and Balsam Fir.
 
BigCountryNY said:
Thanks for the reassurance! I was fairly certain, but there's not a lot of locust where I've lived for the past dozen or so years before moving to NY. It's definitely very dense and heavy for sure. Biggest rounds we bucked today were 22" diameter and were a workout to split into manageable sizes to transport in our SUVs. As if I wasn't sold on it already, I was resold today on my Fiskars X27 as my colleague was not having as much fun with his wedge and sledge!

I'm seasoning on pavement and concrete up off the ground, so with a little luck this stuff might be ready for next year - but time will tell.
Click to expand...

I seasoned black locust for a year and it was burning like poo. Took a moisture meter to it and it was in the lower 30's. Two years it is decent. Nowadays, I try to give it three yeas and stack my oak, locust, and hickory in the same stacks for 3 years down the road.

What you have in those pics is a little different than the locust I am used to here in Maryland. Mine actually has a distinct difference in coloration between the heartwood and sap wood, but the bark is extremely close to what I have here.
 
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fabsroman said:
I seasoned black locust for a year and it was burning like poo. Took a moisture meter to it and it was in the lower 30's. Two years it is decent. Nowadays, I try to give it three yeas and stack my oak, locust, and hickory in the same stacks for 3 years down the road.

What you have in those pics is a little different than the locust I am used to here in Maryland. Mine actually has a distinct difference in coloration between the heartwood and sap wood, but the bark is extremely close to what I have here.
Click to expand...

I've noticed that the heartwood color is darker when it's green. If it's been dead and drying for a while, it all seems to 'even out' into a yellowish color.

I'd upload some pics for comparison, but it won't let me??
 
3years seasoning makes locust prime firewood. 1 year like burning a wet sponge. Lots of experience with locust. It's great wood and last many years stacked.
 
Thanks for the tips on the locust. I'll be curious to see how it dries in my setup on top of the pavement. If it's not ready for next year, I'll hold onto it until it is. No sense in wasting good wood!
 
Try black visqueen(?) about halfway down the sides . Bakes the wood not sure if it will work to dry it enough for next year tho
 
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I top covered the stacks with dark brown 10 mil tarps, hoping for a similar effect with decent durability. We'll see how it goes though. To be fair to the residents, I'm giving a cooling off period - then my colleague and I are going back for more. I still have a standing dead birch and red oak that need to be felled, but are down the hill on my property with no truck access. Thinking a used 4x4 quad might be the ticket to help in getting it out of there with out a huge amount of manual labor. Just have to convince the wife now...
 
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