Gotta love locust!!

Simonkenton said:

I have 39 acres here in the North Carolina mountains and I burn a lot of locust. Best firewood available.
The blight hit 15 years ago and killed all the locust trees. I have got dozens of them, that died ten years ago but are still standing.
Even the ones that fell over, usually when you cut 'em up they run about 17 percent moisture. The standing ones run less than that, I have seen dead standing at 11 percent.
Locust runs about 29 million BTU/cord, there is hardly a better firewood available in the US, certainly nothing near here.
I mostly burn black walnut with some oak, I save the locust for the last logs at 11 pm and for the 4 am reload.

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I'm close to you

Simonkenton said:

I have 39 acres here in the North Carolina mountains and I burn a lot of locust. Best firewood available.
The blight hit 15 years ago and killed all the locust trees. I have got dozens of them, that died ten years ago but are still standing.
Even the ones that fell over, usually when you cut 'em up they run about 17 percent moisture. The standing ones run less than that, I have seen dead standing at 11 percent.
Locust runs about 29 million BTU/cord, there is hardly a better firewood available in the US, certainly nothing near here.
I mostly burn black walnut with some oak, I save the locust for the last logs at 11 pm and for the 4 am reload.

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I'm close by in Burnsville and do the same. The black locust came out when it went to 10 degrees and kept the house nice and warm.

fire_man said:

According to Chimneysweeponline.com: Hedge is King of BTU's. Locust is below White Oak but better than Red Oak.



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Ahh hop hornbeam is 2nd. I have a 15" BH hornbeam I will be processing this winter. I look forward to that in a few years.

Only downside with locust is the burning stink smell outside. It's no cherry!

Woody Stover said:

We are just getting rolling here with the EAB. All I've seen here is White Ash..not sure if we have Green or not. If yours has been White, how long can you leave 'em standing before they go to hell? I've been watching a couple dead ones, and they have each dropped one limb. Is the rest of the wood in those still OK do you think?

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Usually you can get something good out of them. We have some standing dead for a couple of years that still have good wood. We just cut a few last fall that were still good and solid, and we started seeing eab somewhere around 2011-2012 . If I were you, I would just cut them all down now as you can. On our property we did two rounds thinking perhaps the still healthy looking trees would make it. We just had to come back through later and get the rest.

Either that, or look for the signs of poor health. The bark will start to shed, making the tree look more Brown. The tree is still alive at this point and may otherwise look healthy. But it's terminal.

venator260 said:

If I were you, I would just cut them all down now as you can. On our property we did two rounds thinking perhaps the still healthy looking trees would make it. We just had to come back through later and get the rest.

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I've been toying with that idea. Problem is, I have about five years of wood stacked, and have been loafing the last couple years. There are about ten Red Oaks down out there (they seem to bite the dust regularly.) I need to try to get those as well. I really need to take advantage of the winter this year, with it's lack of undergrowth, ticks etc. I hope I can get up out of the computer chair at some point and make a dent..

Woody Stover said:

I've been toying with that idea. Problem is, I have about years of wood stacked, and have been loafing the last couple years. There are about ten Red Oaks down out there (they seem to bite the dust regularly.) I need to try to get those as well. I really need to take advantage of the winter this year, with it's lack of undergrowth, ticks etc. I hope I can get up out of the computer chair at some point and make a dent..

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My dad and I had the same experience with red oaks this year. One of our neighbors has about 5 acres or so, and about 5-6 red oaks uprooted on the property. Trees were still solid. We processed the logs, and it return, we got the firewood from those trees and anything standing dead.

As for the ash... they do store well. I'm burning wood from the fall of '15. Doing some math with the volume of my stacks, I think I have about 14 cords left, so I expect to be burning from this part of my stash at least through next winter. I also have about 7-8 cords stacked outside of the shed due to other scrounges, and much of it is ash. So, while the ash trees are nearly gone, I'll be burning ash for a few years yet.

Different charts give different BTU ratings. I have seen locust at 29 million BTU/cord.
At any rate, I burn lots of locust and, around here, it better than white oak.
The only wood I have found that is close to locust is hickory, but, I can't split hickory with my fierce Monster Maul so I don't burn it.

I'm with u Simonkenton I have seen different charts with different values, no matter what locust is a very good heat producer. Plus it last about forever in the stacks, so if you don't need it till it gets real cold it will last. I have locust over five years old sitting still solid as a rock waiting for the real cold. All the top hardwoods in he charts are very good heat makers everyone has their preferances.

I have a cord and a half of Locust left with no more in sight...

Seems like folks from the Indiana area have all the best hardwoods. Hedge, Locust, White Oak, Ironwood. It doesn't get much better!

Nobody even heard of Osage Orange around here.

fire_man said:

Seems like folks from the Indianna area have all the best hardwoods. Hedge, Locust, White Oak, Ironwood. It does't get much better!

Nobody even heard of Osage Orange around here.

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We are indeed blessed!

Tar12 said:

I have a cord and a half of Locust left with no more in sight...

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Get out the binocs...we NEED BL in our stacks!

fire_man said:

Seems like folks from the Indiana area have all the best hardwoods. Hedge, Locust, White Oak, Ironwood. It doesn't get much better! Nobody even heard of Osage Orange around here.

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I never saw Ironwood (Eastern Hophornbeam) here yet but according to the Audubon Guide, we are within the range. You forgot to mention Shagbark and Pignut Hickory, Persimmon and Dogwood (good stuff but small trees so more messing around to get an appreciable quantity.) Yes, we are blessed. I guess it's only fair that we are compensated for living in a cultural backwater. Seriously, you can have a good life anywhere, you just have to make it happen.

Woody Stover said:

Get out the binocs...we NEED BL in our stacks!
I never saw Ironwood (Eastern Hophornbeam) here yet but according to the Audubon Guide, we are within the range. You forgot to mention Shagbark and Pignut Hickory, Persimmon and Dogwood (good stuff but small trees so more messing around to get an appreciable quantity.) Yes, we are blessed. I guess it's only fair that we are compensated for living in a cultural backwater. Seriously, you can have a good life anywhere, you just have to make it happen.

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I know where its at! lol acres and acres of it but I would probably get shot! lol

Tar12 said:

I know where its at! lol acres and acres of it but I would probably get shot! lol

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Yeah, BL just keep spreading to eventually establish large groves. One of my neighbors has another house near here with a grove where I know for sure there's a big one that fell years ago. I need to get that puppy before they sell that property!

I like the blue flame in the stove when burning it. Like a firecracker when you open the stove to put more in. Great stuff.

I burned 1 split the other day mixed in with some pine and elm and just watched the temps soar I need to get more!

My mother in law watches our two little girls on the days my wife works and this time of year I make sure she has access to small pieces of wood to keep the stove going since she loves the heat. Lately it has just been cedar, ash, and elm, but last week we got some real cold weather so I had a bunch of small 2 to 4 inch diameter rounds of black locust. She commented on sat night that what ever that was she really liked that wood it burned forever, tons of heat. Pretty much all the stuff we here already know about locust. I just thought it was funny she brought that up, especially since she has burned it before. As the post says you gotta love locust!

I've scrounged a bit more than 2 cords of honey locust this year.

Hoping I don't melt the stove in few years when we start burning it.

I've been running pretty much only locust the last week with the deep cold. I find the same thing, My liberty seems to run great on it but if I mix maple or oak in it's much harder to control. I do seem to need a much larger coal bed and warmer stove on reload to get things going and settled in easily.

I honk a stove full of locust by itself is very easy to control. It does seem like u need a better ash bed to get it to go but I never have had a problem. The heat is great from locust but if you load two stoves up side by side and got them running I don't know if you could tell which one was loaded with what. Now when u came back 8 to 12 hours later and the one stove was still cruising and the other one had started cooling then u could tell. This is just my thoughts but I can load a stove up with cedar and get great heat, just for not nearly as long, that's why locust is great!

heavy hammer said:

I had a bunch of small 2 to 4 inch diameter rounds of black locust. She commented on sat night that what ever that was she really liked that wood it burned forever, tons of heat. Pretty much all the stuff we here already know about locust.

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Hmmm, she's paying attention. Sounds like another potential convert to our little wood-burning legion.

It know she is getting better at picking out the better stuff. She keeps the fire going and the house warm, for us when me and my wife both work so I can't complain to much.

kversch said:

I've been running pretty much only locust the last week with the deep cold....I do seem to need a much larger coal bed and warmer stove on reload to get things going and settled in easily.

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I'm loading BL and White Oak now..seems like these dense woods are harder to get burning, and get enough wood gassing to sustain a hot reburn. I just loaded a couple big WO splits..burned 'em in a little longer, and now with the bypass closed I'm leaving the air open a little more so I've got flame coming off the wood, and it will continue to burn in. I'm expecting the stove top to be at 600 in short order. When the coals are low next time and I have room for several splits, gonna put a Red Oak in the front/bottom in hopes that it will gas more at the start of the load..

ZZ Tom said:

I've scrounged a bit more than 2 cords of honey locust this year.

Hoping I don't melt the stove in few years when we start burning it.

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I had a HL scrounge in 9/16. All rounds, very heavy. I split it 6/17, and it was wet as all get-out. Stored off the ground and under cover. Am burning some splits now and I can tell they needed another year.

Blew my freakin' mind when I remember the homeowner saying the tree came down in 2015. So, the seasoning clock WILL NOT START until you split that stuff. At least that's my experience. Heavy, heavy doggone rounds.

But, methinks you're gonna' like it.

Tar12 said:

I know where its at! lol acres and acres of it but I would probably get shot! lol

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You might try approaching the owner and see if you can dead trees. But ask first if he'll let you take the stuff on the ground, he might more easily agree to that. When a neighbor let me go into their BL grove, I found a bunch of dead stuff on the ground, no bark, and it was like 17%. When you are cutting it and it looks brown, not yellow, it's ready to go in the stove.