I found a standing dead Honey Locust in my woods last weekend. It's full of giant thorns and about 8" DBH. The top branches are gone and the trunk is full of checking so it's long dead but solid. Sorry no pics. It's definitely an outlier in my neck of the woods. Most of my trees are Soapberry, Hackberry, Walnut, and Osage. Anyway, how is Honey Locust as firewood and how do I deal with the giant thorns.
Honey Locust
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Honey locust is fantastic fuel. Take your time and run the saw up and down the bark to knock those thorns off. BEWARE those thorns are notorious for giving infections if you get stuck.
I stuck a thorn about two inches into my wrist like I was getting an IV. It took a trip to the doc. The sucker swelled up like you wouldn't believe and my hand looked like a catchers mitt.
2PistolPacker
Member
I had a similar thing happen after clearing a tree line, about four days later my knee started to swell and I notice a black dot on my knee. After digging around it, a locust thorn had gone 3/8" straight into my knee and I didn't know it until my knee swelled up. Be careful, I have always feared getting spiked by an 8" locust thorn. Ouch.
mstoelton
Feeling the Heat
BobUrban
Minister of Fire
Hell on tires too - be careful where you drive if your bringing a tractor or truck or whatever near there to haul it out.
Wood Duck
Minister of Fire
claydogg84
Minister of Fire
So far I've found two of the Honey Locust. This dead tree and another live tree nearby that's way too small for firewood. I'm about 60 miles West of its native range so I guess that's why I might find them around. I won't burn Osage exclusively so I strategically place a few splits in my stacks so there's always one available for the really cold days.
Honey Locust is awesome wood, but a pain to work with. If I am dropping one I avoid anywhere that I have to walk or drive.
I took a 3" thorn THROUGH the sole of my Carolina boot and into my heal. I dropped like a sack of potatoes. We had to break the thorn at the sole and take the boot off with the thorn in my heal. Some soaking in Epsom Salt and a needle and tweezers and about 3/4 to 1" of it came out. I could barely walk for a week while it was healing(no pun intended). It was nasty.
Neighbor had a dog die from getting stabbed in the side by one and burrowed into it's organs.
I actually have an abundance of thornless honey locust aswell. Only one real knarly honeylocust that I am going to drop into the creek someday.
I took a 3" thorn THROUGH the sole of my Carolina boot and into my heal. I dropped like a sack of potatoes. We had to break the thorn at the sole and take the boot off with the thorn in my heal. Some soaking in Epsom Salt and a needle and tweezers and about 3/4 to 1" of it came out. I could barely walk for a week while it was healing(no pun intended). It was nasty.
Neighbor had a dog die from getting stabbed in the side by one and burrowed into it's organs.
I actually have an abundance of thornless honey locust aswell. Only one real knarly honeylocust that I am going to drop into the creek someday.
I had a thorn come up thru my boot sole too. I was wearing a pair of LLBeans rubber Bean boots. I felt it pierce the sole and I didnt step down on it. But it went right thru the bottom of the boot.
I took down the dead Honey Locust this weekend. The thorns are a PITA to deal with. The tree was long dead and the moister content can't be more than 20%. The wood was hard as a rock. I had to really work it with the x27 to split and every time I hit a fresh round it sounded like a .22 rifle.
JRJ
Member
This tree was collared/killed by beetle galleries. The bark and thorns were missing for the first eight feet or so. From that point up the thorns were plentiful and didn't appear to be going anywhere. I found a lot of thorns within the wood while I was splitting. It was like the tree grew into its own thorns. I found another dead one a few yards away but its in bad shape. The top branches had fallen all around the trunk and were caught up in the thorns. It was too much of a mess to try and deal with.
The thorns will fall off right after the tree falls to the ground from natural decay. Them suckers are tough.
Get yourself a propane weed burner and light them thorns up. Works great
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