Black Locust

[quote author="WARDNEAL" date="1287898718"]Me and a buddy were going to cut some hack berry on a farm today.

But we got there and the gate was locked.

Well we thought that was the end of that place to cut.

As we were driving home saw a drive way to a house that had a lot of dead trees (black locust).

No one home left a note. Got home and did a search and found the owners name and called him.

He was happy to have someone help clean up the mess.

Now I have a place to cut wood for the next 3 years and it is good dry locust.

Got my first load home and split for next year. How great is that.

The only wood better out here is Osage Orange.

Just had to share this.[/quote



Pics please! Great score! Now make us drool

bonus points for e-stalking the owner. That's a sweet score. that wood is gonna spoil you, I bet.

WARDNEAL said:

...

The only wood better out here is Osage Orange...

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In my area grow just about every type of hardwood tree you can think of, and even here there aren't too many better woods than Black Locust. When you factor in density/BTUs, seasoning time, and rot resistance, Black Locust comes out very close to the top of the list.

Nice score.

Just curious how is Locust to split?

midwestcoast said:

Nice score.

Just curious how is Locust to split?

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stringy like oak and and harder to split then oak.

I love locust trees. Never burned 'em, but they are pretty and provide good shade. You never have to rake those little leaves, just mulch 'em up.

Sen. John Blutarsky said:

I love locust trees. Never burned 'em, but they are pretty and provide good shade. You never have to rake those little leaves, just mulch 'em up.

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Just watch out for those monster thorns....there's one in our backyard with 6 inch-ers. P-A-I-N

Black locust is way up there on my wish list. Seems to dull a hand saw blade
and the chain sooner, but the stuff puts out surprising heat for a real long time.

All the locust I cut does not have thorns. I have heard some do have them. Enjoy the wood, good btus.

I scored on a black locust this summer 3 dump trailers, a lot of wood but had some rounds 4 ft across and weigh a lot and can not split. When I try to split it comes back at you lol, well some how some way I'll get them worked up.

P

xbunzx said:

I scored on a black locust this summer 3 dump trailers, a lot of wood but had some rounds 4 ft across and weigh a lot and can not split. When I try to split it comes back at you lol, well some how some way I'll get them worked up.

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You might need to start with a wedge first... then go back to to swinging...lol or find someone who has some hydraulics!

GolfandWoodNut said:

All the locust I cut does not have thorns. I have heard some do have them. Enjoy the wood, good btus.

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Right - black locust typically have small stipule spines (thorns) along the smaller branches. Honey locust has the big thorns - wondering if the post above that mentioned large thorns might have been dealing with honey locust? Cheers!

NH_Wood said:

GolfandWoodNut said:

All the locust I cut does not have thorns. I have heard some do have them. Enjoy the wood, good btus.

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Right - black locust typically have small stipule spines (thorns) along the smaller branches. Honey locust has the big thorns - wondering if the post above that mentioned large thorns might have been dealing with honey locust? Cheers!

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I thought it was the other way around , I just got some honey locust with no thorns.... at least I thought it was ! Lol now I dunno what type of wood it is...

iceman said:

I just got some honey locust with no thorns.... at least I thought it was ! Lol now I dunno what type of wood it is...

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I got some of that last year as well and had the same confusion. This was IDd as thornless Honey.

As I understand it you can get thornless of either HOney or Black, as thorns have been selectively bred out of them for use as shade trees. I like them to, but I have one that hangs over my house, filling the gutter with leaflets & stems constantly & kinda drives me nuts. I'm too soft to have it taken out though.

BeGreen said:

It splits pretty nicely. We scored a batch last year. Nice wood. Out here in the land of softwood it's precious like gold.

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I agree with both points--it does split easily and it's a nice, rare treat for those of us in the PNW! I scored 3 cords for free off of Craigslist last year and it's looking nice and seasoned for this winter!! I burned a few chunks last winter that were super dry because it had been dead standing---sure burns nice! Also, I really like the smell of Black Locust, it smells like a Dr. Pepper when you split it


NP

Black Locust has small thorns, mostly on smallish branches. Honey Locust has giant thorns, including many on the trunk. There are thornless Honey Locust that are very popular as landscape.shade trees. I haven't heard of thornless Black Locust, but maybe there is one. All the honey locust I have is from thornless street trees. All the Black Locust I have is from wild trees with thorns, but not on the wood large enough to cut and split.

Excellent foot work there fellas. Locust was real good imo but my wife didn't like it cause the coals lasted forever...she couldn't load more wood cause of that huge bed of coals that was always there. Takes 2 summers to season sufficiently if you split it normally.(we split everything small with the new stove)

Except for one we cut all the locust down cause they were an ugly nuisance tree. Seemed that cord wood lasted forever, it was like a bad dream to have keep re-splitting it in smaller pieces. Sure it split easy enough but to see it there just thrown on the ground out in the open. Certain people here are very demanding and usually get what they want.

That's the kind of wood you want to throw in if you're going to Vegas for the weekend...you'll have hot coals when you get back.

midwestcoast said:

...Just curious how is Locust to split?

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Well I dunno since I havent been able to split any yet! lol

I think what I have is black locust... my BIL called it Locust and after looking up online I guess its the black variety. Not really sure. But it dulled my saw blade quicker than anything and was heck to cut. After getting it home I've only been able to split the smallest pieces. Even pretty small pieces sometimes the maul bounces right back. Think I'll have to rent a splitter next spring...

Yeah^ that deep furrowed bark holds decades of sand and dirt.

savageactor7 said:

Yeah^ that deep furrowed bark holds decades of sand and dirt.

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Yeah that was some of the thickest bark I've seen on a tree, like a few inches thick. But most of it I peeled off before cutting (trees been down a couple years already, bark slips right off) or the standing dead ones didnt have bark left on it. I think it was a combo of the wood being dense along with a chain that has been hand sharpened too many times (and yeah, hitting dirt a few times too).

I still dont know if it was black locust but from what I can tell here it is...
I dont have pics but this wood like I said above was very dense and heavy (probably 1/3 to 1/2 again as heavy as cherry per size) had very thick deeply furrowed bark with a vertically striated pattern (which peeled of easy from a cpl yr downed tree & full of bugs-the bark I mean), and some of it freshly cut was a green/yellow color and some was less greenish and more tan/yellow. Much harder to split than the cherry/maple/ash I'm used to. Most pieces the maul simple bounces back. The smallest ones I've split, and they split straight but end up having still to really work at pulling the pieces apart since they have a few strands that always hang on.

Does that sound like black locust?

xbunzx said:

I scored on a black locust this summer 3 dump trailers, a lot of wood but had some rounds 4 ft across and weigh a lot and can not split. When I try to split it comes back at you lol, well some how some way I'll get them worked up.

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No such thing as "can not split." Couple of options:
1. "Daisy" the biggies. Split off small slabs from the outside, working your way around and to the center.
2. Cheat with chainsaw, either
a. "noodling" (cutting along grain) in enough to set a wedge and start a split.
b. rip a starter line across a cut face, set a wedge and proceed.

I've found that 6 lb maul is less likely to bounce back than 8 lb, in unscientific test.

Forks & knots are special cases, to be dealt with severely by chainsaw.

Minimizing chainsawing results in least conversion of wood to chips.