Locust - Do You Find It a Pain to Use?

leeave96 said:

I have always thought and always been told that locust is quite possibly the best wood you can burn - and I agree with that, at least from a heat output standpoint.

I've got a BUNCH of black locust, very dry - wonderful seasoned wood.

But sometimes this locust is a pain in the arse to burn! You get use to the other wood types, oak, maple - even pine, but locust has damper settings all it's own - LOL!

More air to get going, more coals after the burn!

Sometimes, it's a relief to chuck a piece of pine in the stove and watch it take off vs my locust!

I would equate locust to manual steering in an old truck and pine as power steering in terms of lighting off.

Anyone else get frustrated when burning locust some times?

Don't get me wrong, I like it's heat output once going - but sometimes....

Bill

Click to expand...

I'd be happy to take it off your hands Seriously though, I never really had a problem. I would usually add it to a fire that was well established though, as in splits well past the char stage or on a hot bed of coals. We have a lot of locust in NJ-I wish more of it would find its way into my backyard! I haven't found anything that gives a true overnight burn like locust does.

PLEASE feel free to share the pain. I will try to deal with any pain you care to share. Thank you in advance for your consideration.

I don't usually have that problem with locust, but I do have it with hickory and cherry. If I don't give them more air I will often get a pile of cold charcoal. Certainly locust is best tossed on a nice hot coal bed, you don't want to light a fire from scratch with BL.

+1 love locust over here no probs so put me on your disposal list.

I have thousands of locust trees i would glady trade for osage orange ! I'll even furnish the beer. Hate locust, and thorns.

When tossing in a "round" of bl splits, toss in one or two of sugar maple/white ash/you get the picture. Keeps it simple.

I start my fires with newspaper and small shards and splits of the locust. It seems to start fairly well. The only problem I have is when I open to load more, its got alot of snap, crackle and pop and those mini explosions sometimes catch me and/or the rug.

Black Locust burns poorly in my stove, compared to other wood. If you search the archives, you'll find a number of others who've said the same. Depends on the stove, and your burning practices.

Seems to take a bit more air for me, atleast until it gets to running temp. And if its gots some moisture to it can be a pain to get up to temp. I had one pile of locust that probably would have been fine if it hadnt been put catching some of the eaves of the old chicken coup. That left some of the wood a tad wet and when I first got into that pile last year it was frozen in one big brick of ice. That pile caused a lot of PITA reloads. Would have been similar for most any wood that was wet but I feel even more so for the BL.

Black locust is a nuisance plant in Missouri:

http://mdc.mo.gov/landwater-care/plant-management/nuisance-plant-management/black-locust-control

Apparently very difficult to eliminate once established.

leeave96 said:

Locust - Do You Find It a Pain to Use?

Click to expand...

No

The only thing I don't like about Locust is it smells like hot garbage when green

JimboM said:

Black locust is a nuisance plant in Missouri:

http://mdc.mo.gov/landwater-care/plant-management/nuisance-plant-management/black-locust-control

Apparently very difficult to eliminate once established.

Click to expand...

Isn't it native to MO?

Bigg_Redd said:

JimboM said:

Black locust is a nuisance plant in Missouri:

http://mdc.mo.gov/landwater-care/plant-management/nuisance-plant-management/black-locust-control

Apparently very difficult to eliminate once established.

Click to expand...

Isn't it native to MO?

Click to expand...

Could be. I don't know much about trees and plants. I just try to cooperate with the state forestry boys. They seem to have a good handle on things here in Missouri. Learned it from my dad. He always tried to keep nuisance plants and trees off his property.

I am having a hard time with BL in my Fireview. It is slow to light and needs more air. All of my wood has been heavily rained and snowed on and still has quite a bit of surface moisture too. I am hoping that after I get about 1/3 cord stacked on the covered front porch some sunshine will help me out. The better draft of colder weather will also help. About 95% of this year's and 2/3 of next year's wood is BL, so i have to get this figured out. I am going to try to get more variety from now on so I can mix. I have some Cherry, Red Oak and White Ash lined up to harvest this fall and winter.

Flatbedford said:

I am having a hard time with BL in my Fireview. It is slow to light and needs more air. All of my wood has been heavily rained and snowed on and still has quite a bit of surface moisture too. I am hoping that after I get about 1/3 cord stacked on the covered front porch some sunshine will help me out. The better draft of colder weather will also help. About 95% of this year's and 2/3 of next year's wood is BL, so i have to get this figured out. I am going to try to get more variety from now on so I can mix. I have some Cherry, Red Oak and White Ash lined up to harvest this fall and winter.

Click to expand...

I have been burning BL here on a bed of coals along with Ash and Oak and it burns well.. The secret to burning BL is to have a good coal base and/or burn with other woods.. Gives a long burn and nice blue flames on the T-5.. I would not try to burn BL by itself on a cold start..

Ray

burned it my old fisher stove for years
and now in an epa stove and never noticed it was any harder to light.
although, maybe i wasn't paying attention.
only thing i notice is how i love the heat it kicks out

OT

I like the heat and burn time too. I'm going to get more of it in the sun and make some smaller splits tomorrow. I think that will help a lot. I have about 6 cords of BL, I have to figure it out.

I have been burning BL almost exclusively. I have a good deal split fairly small (2-3") just for getting things going. For sure startup and reloads are not like pine. With new fires I like to build cribs or stack it in the firebox so it gets plenty of air. Once you have a coal bed and a hot stove this is less important until the stove goes a little cool (200).

Also I don't find that locust has a particularly bad smell but that's just me.

The wood smell or the smoke? The wood has an odd smell but its the smoke that smells terrible to me, especially on a hard startup that happens to be smoking more than usual, if you open the door and get a whiff (or go outside downwind) its pretty horrendous IMO.

Flatbedford said:

I am having a hard time with BL in my Fireview. It is slow to light and needs more air. All of my wood has been heavily rained and snowed on and still has quite a bit of surface moisture too. I am hoping that after I get about 1/3 cord stacked on the covered front porch some sunshine will help me out. The better draft of colder weather will also help. About 95% of this year's and 2/3 of next year's wood is BL, so i have to get this figured out. I am going to try to get more variety from now on so I can mix. I have some Cherry, Red Oak and White Ash lined up to harvest this fall and winter.

Click to expand...

You skimmed over my earlier post. Mix in a small proportion of more-incendiary wood (e.g. sugar maple, ash) when you load in some bl. That'll establish, and maintain, flames while the bl warms to the task. If all else fails, skids will work for you. Pure bl will frustrate you.

I've found that bl splits can seem to be relatively dry, but still harbor lots of water. The small steam-explosions are a clue. Stacking bl splits near the stove for a few weeks seems to make them much more responsive.

Want a location for a huge white ash stem, that's been dropped right next to a road? Feet from NY border.

Flatbedford said:

I am having a hard time with BL in my Fireview. It is slow to light and needs more air. All of my wood has been heavily rained and snowed on and still has quite a bit of surface moisture too. I am hoping that after I get about 1/3 cord stacked on the covered front porch some sunshine will help me out. The better draft of colder weather will also help. About 95% of this year's and 2/3 of next year's wood is BL, so i have to get this figured out. I am going to try to get more variety from now on so I can mix. I have some Cherry, Red Oak and White Ash lined up to harvest this fall and winter.

Click to expand...

Hi Steve -

Yup I posted in the past w/ trouble getting Locust to burn in the Fireview. I believe my problems were I had WAY too much surface moisture (holes in tarps), it was unseasoned,and I was afraid to give it enough air because I was babying the brand new stove. I had a miserable time getting it to light and then burn. You may have to resort to splitting smaller. That stuff built up an annoying coal base. Since that awful time in my wood burning history, I never burn anything not seasoned at least 2 years, thank you Dennis. Hope you made it through the snowstorm without too much trouble!

I don't have much to mix with. I have some White Ash that will last a little while. I made some much smaller splits today and I loaded my front porch rack too. After a few days in the sun things should improve. The colder weather helps too.

Where's the Ash? I just cut one today about 3/4 mile from home. It was standing dead until Irene.

Flatbedford said:

I am having a hard time with BL in my Fireview. It is slow to light and needs more air. All of my wood has been heavily rained and snowed on and still has quite a bit of surface moisture too. I am hoping that after I get about 1/3 cord stacked on the covered front porch some sunshine will help me out. The better draft of colder weather will also help. About 95% of this year's and 2/3 of next year's wood is BL, so i have to get this figured out. I am going to try to get more variety from now on so I can mix. I have some Cherry, Red Oak and White Ash lined up to harvest this fall and winter.

Click to expand...

Hey Flatbed, Hello from a down stater. Been there with the locust, it is dense. Used to it now. If you want to, try putting 2-3 splits parallel a few inches apart N/S on the bottom while avoiding blocking any incoming air (you have a "dog house" in front?). Then stack layers opposing ways as you move up with pc's 1/4-1/2" apart. Gives plenty of air coming up through the crib. This especially useful at startup or colder reloads. In a hot stove anything goes.

All this talk about locust makes it sound like a problem. I think the stuff is great and do not have any trouble with it but as I've said it ain't pine (and mine don't smell ).

PS I keep a good supply of smallish splits 1 1/2-2". The honking big ones need a good bed of coal. Good thing is it splits straight as an arrow so some of my "air" cribs look too nice to burn!