Honey Locust

Neighbor gave me some trees he had taken down last summer. Two Honey Locust and the other he called a "Mountain Ash"? The bark and wood color/grain didn't look like what I know as an ash. Anybody heard of it? Anyway this score is going to keep me busy awhile. First load didn't hardly put a dent in the pile. Oh yeah.. the pile. The guy pushed every thing out into the pasture behind his house with a tractor. It's a big mess, and there is a fair amount of dirt ground into the bark. My chain dulled pretty quickly. Oh well. It's good BTU's close to home, so I won't groan to much.

That honey locust is worth the dull chains IMO. I have lots and lots of it in my stacks, but it wind be used til 2013/2014. By then it will have been C/S/S for three years with the oodles of oak in that section too, cant wait to be at that section. Honey locust is some of the best BTU's there is!

The dead locust i cut, which i would guess to be standing dead for at least 2-3 yrs was hard as heck on my chains. Took 2 (20" loops) grinder sharpened chains just to load 4ft worth of ford ranger bed full of wood.

This stuff is nothing like oak as far as MC and holding it though. I split it all within few days but that night i test split some pieces adn they were showing 25% on my MM already. Scotty if youhave that stuff split for a year i bet its ready!

I usually am good to go with locust after one year, but most of it is the standing dead variety. This stuff was plenty heavy, but it did split very nice. These trees came out of a yard and were thornless. Most of what I normally get comes from the timber and has those nasty thorns. I'm thinking the domesticated (thornless) is a little better quality. It seems denser and the heartwood is a larger percentage of the total mass. Any one else notice any difference?

Mountain ash (Sorbus spp.) is typically a small tree, nothing like that first pic of yours. It has compound leaves and red/orange berries. I've heard people call regular ash (Fraxinus spp.) "mountain ash" before, but they didn't know what they were talking about. Maybe they think it sounds more impressive that way.
Just looking at the bark, I would have guessed you had one of those big old silver maples.

The trees in the pic are Honey Locust. I'll take some pics of the "Mystery Ash", and post later.

Wow! Massive honey Locust! I feel tired just looking at it.

That is some nice Honey Locust! Serious btu's in that stuff!

Did someone mention massive Honey Locust? Over the past 25+ years I've cut,milled,shaped & burned both the 'wild' HL with all the nasty thorns & the 'domestic' thornless HL used for various shade trees.There is no difference in density,color,strength,shock resistance,burning or workability between the two.

12-15 months in sunny windy location with smaller rounds or split average sized its good to go around here.

Have burned Mountain Ash before and it is good stuff...

HehHeh . . . maybe he meant he had a mountain OF ash.

Very nice score.
Like you said " good BTUs, & close"
Makes the score cost very little

I haven't burnt my Honey Locust yet to know, probably later this year. But they say its great stuff. I just know that it smells great when split. Good score you've got even though you'll dual a chain or two. Get it while you can.

Went back for another load yesterday.

The mystery "ash" after closer inspection, looks to me an awful lot like Chinese Elm. Here's a shot of the trunk.

Here's a small split.

Gee, I think I'll take the locust first. My ambition level may drop considerably when it's all gone.

That bark does look more like Ash than Chinese elm. When you split it what did it smell like? What I know as Chinese elm is also called Piss Elm, and thats kinda of what it smells like.

That be ash!

On that wood with all the mud and dirt, you can save the chain a bit by using a wire brush to scrape some of the dirt off or if you are home or somewhere with water a power washer can work wonders. Otherwise, you will file that chain a lot which naturally shortens the life of it. They are not overly expensive but still dollars.

That is not a Mountain Ash which are small trees in the genus Sorbus (e.g. Sorbus Americana - the native Mountain Ash around here). That would be the biggest mountain ash in the world by a long shot, so you can rule it out just on size.