Locust

Well, first I should say I don't have much experience with Honey Locust, but I think Honey locust is supposed to be fairly low in moisture content even when green, and yours has dried for a few months, so I believe it could be burnable. Maybe it isn't perfectly seasoned, but perhaps good enough. I have some pear that was cut to length in October, and splitting it I can see about an inch or two of drier wood on each end of the round. If Honey Locust seasons about as fast, that could be two inches on each end of the rounds, which would mean half of the 8 inch rounds are noticeably drier than they started. I mention the pear only because it seems to show the extent of drying really well. Other woods must go through the same drying process, but it isn't as easy to see.

ggans said:

I cut down two Honey Locus last October I think. Was cutting it up into rounds until the weather got cold. When it did I left some rounds , about 14 inches Dia and about 8 inches thick laying on the ground by the tree.

About a month ago i split some of the rounds and stacked them on my deck for next year. My deck is a very hot place in the summer. I am running low on wood. So I took a split and burned it. I got no steam or sizzle. I cant believe how dry it was. So I brought some of it in the house and put it on the harth next to the stove where it can get warmth and some IR.

The stuff is drying very fast, I flipped some over , on end and you can see where it dryed and did not, the center. It seems like if I let it bake near the stove I could burn this in a week or two. Could that really be?

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Locust (Black and Honey) is very low moisture. You can burn it green if you have to.

Bigg_Redd said:

ggans said:

I cut down two Honey Locus last October I think. Was cutting it up into rounds until the weather got cold. When it did I left some rounds , about 14 inches Dia and about 8 inches thick laying on the ground by the tree.

About a month ago i split some of the rounds and stacked them on my deck for next year. My deck is a very hot place in the summer. I am running low on wood. So I took a split and burned it. I got no steam or sizzle. I cant believe how dry it was. So I brought some of it in the house and put it on the harth next to the stove where it can get warmth and some IR.

The stuff is drying very fast, I flipped some over , on end and you can see where it dryed and did not, the center. It seems like if I let it bake near the stove I could burn this in a week or two. Could that really be?

Click to expand...

Locust (Black and Honey) is very low moisture. You can burn it green if you have to.

Click to expand...

+1

Ive seen 15% on the moisture meeter straight out of the woods before. Mostly what i burn and it burns up good doosent leave alot of ase or coals.

Locust (Black and Honey) is very low moisture. You can burn it green if you have to.[/quote]


I've found that to be true of Black Locust, but all of the Honeylocust that I've ever had has been very wet when green; perhaps it was just that tree...

Black and Honey Locust are not super closely related - they are in the same family, but different genera - for example - Oak and Beech are in the same family and different genera - although Honey and Black locust are probably a little closer related than that.

my point is: Just becuase Black locust has low moisture content when green, doesnt mean that Honey locust shares similar properties (unless you know for sure that it is the case)

Honey and Black locust grow in very different habitats, have totally different looking wood, totally different looking bark, etc, etc,

My experience with it is not as good as yours. I cut and split alot of honey Locust. It is propably about 75% of what I burn and I do enjoy it but it has always taken 8 months to a year to season. I wonder if that most of mine comes out of bottom grounds has an effect?

Setting firewood next to the stove is just like kiln drying, you can have great burning wood in a week, just be careful not to get it too close.

cre73 said:

My experience with it is not as good as yours. I cut and split alot of honey Locust. It is propably about 75% of what I burn and I do enjoy it but it has always taken 8 months to a year to season. I wonder if that most of mine comes out of bottom grounds has an effect?

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yeah, thats where honey locust grows - in the river bottoms and wet places.

I really doubt that honey locust has a low moisture content.

I think Honey Locust appears to be very similiar to Black Locust. I just cut one of each up recently The bark is almost identical except Honey locust is a lighter shade. The one I cut was on a hillside, so I guess they do not have to grow in river bottoms. It was close to the Ohio river, but high on the hill side. The wood was just as heavy as Black Locust, so I doubt there is much difference in moisture content. I will check some shortly as I split some recently. The wood is a different shade, more brown and black locust was more white. I would think it would season very quickly since Black Locust is ranked 3rd on the fast list behind Ash and Beech but one on the BTU list.

FLINT said:

yeah, thats where honey locust grows - in the river bottoms and wet places.

I really doubt that honey locust has a low moisture content.

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The honey locust in the city here is very dry fresh cut.

I confirmed that Honey Locust is low moisture content. I fresh cut a snow downed tree on Saturday, split it on Sunday, brought it inside and dried the snow off. I am getting moisture readings around 22. It appears it is already very close to being able to burn. In fact I am going to let this one piece dry out on the hearth for a couple of days and burn it. Save the rest for next winter.

golfandwoodnut said:

I confirmed that Honey Locust is low moisture content. I fresh cut a snow downed tree on Saturday, split it on Sunday, brought it inside and dried the snow off. I am getting moisture readings around 22. It appears it is already very close to being able to burn. In fact I am going to let this one piece dry out on the hearth for a couple of days and burn it. Save the rest for next winter.

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interesting, thats cool that you actually got some and measured it. Thanks for doing that.

I ws given three locust trees, honey or shademaster locust, cant remember. they were big, about 25" on the butt. bucked them up and split them. tht was early summer. Started burning it that October and it never sizzled..Puts out a ton of heat but I dont like the coals or lack thereof that they leave if I remember correctly..Overall a great firewood for BTU output!

Although I have yet to burn any Honey Locust I have a couple cords I split for next year but the only similarity between that and Black Locust that I see is the density, the colors and the barks are way different, hell the shape is also different. Love splitting both as the crack open like a walnut.

Alright, fine, eff it.

Crib it up for 3 years with your oak.

I don't give a eff.

cre73 said:

I wonder if that most of mine comes out of bottom grounds has an effect?

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Now that you mention it, the tree that I got was next to a stream...it was very wet when green.

Perhaps there are multiple types of Locust. What I am calling Honey had a bunch of thorns on the branches, on the Black Locust I do not remember any. But the bark was similiar. Some are saying it was smooth, mine was not smooth at all. I can take pictures of the two different species if you would like.

the locust that I cut up was called honey or a shademaster locust.. no thorns..others have stated that the black locust that they have cut up had alot of thorns on it

golfandwoodnut said:

Perhaps there are multiple types of Locust. What I am calling Honey had a bunch of thorns on the branches, on the Black Locust I do not remember any. But the bark was similiar. Some are saying it was smooth, mine was not smooth at all. I can take pictures of the two different species if you would like.

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PLEASE DO! That way, it could (maybe; hopefully) end the confusion. If at all possible, the leaves also - I know, I'm pushin it!

I gathered some honey locust seeds and hope to plant them in the back corner of my lot. There's a lot of sassafras back there but a lot of it is either falling down or is standing dead. I read the locust can grow into usable firewood in 5-7 years and it sends up suckers so it replenishes itself. If I can keep a little patch of locust in the backyard and harvest every few years from in later this decade I'd be pretty happy, especially since its rated one of the best firewoods.

From my experience:

Black locust has very rough deeply furrowed bark. It ususally doesnt grow very straight and can have multiple trunks. The wood is dark yellow/green when green and dries to a yellowish orange/brown. Black locust only has short stout thorns on the smaller branches - and only on the trunk when very young. It grows mostly in old fields, or along the fence row of fields.

Honey locust has smoother, (but definitely not like beech or something) bark, that seems to crack into largish plates. Honey locust is the one with huge wicked thorns all over the trunk. I've never cut into one though, so I don't know what the wood looks like. It tends to grow straighter and a larger around trunk than black locust - i.e. a more pleasing shape - less gnarly.

The only similarity between them that I can think of is that they both have compound leaves with small oval leaflets - however, honey locust can be twice or doubly compound whereas black locust is always only singly compound.

Black locust is Robina psuedoacacia, Honey locust is Gleditsia triacanthos. I probably spelled those wrong, but I don't feel like looking it up right now.


I know black locust can grow fairly fast, but I don't think you'd get much wood out of a 7 year old tree. not sure how fast honey locust grows.

Correct me if I am wrong but I believe Honey Locust is a Hybrid and has no thorns, the Black Locust is the orginal and has the thorns. Honey and Shademaster are two different hybrids I think.

I think Flint has it right. I'll add that there are a bunch of cultivated varieties of Honey Locust that are thornless. It is a pretty common street tree in much of the US, but always the thornless varieties. I don't know if the wood of the thronless varieties is the same as the thorned 'wild' Honey locust, but it should be. The thornless ones are just selected plants that happened to lack thorns and have been propagated and sold.