jpl1nh - 15 May 2008 09:10 PM
Oh yeah, someone else told me it emits poisonus gasses too. Geez!!
Yeah...I had a friend of a friend who's a big outdoorsman allege that "locust gives off poisonous gases." I forget what the physical symptoms of breathing these gases were supposed to be, but I think he said it caused some mental deficiency, IIRC. Amnesia? LOL
But as I said to him: I'm burning it in the
stove, not out in my living room--even if it DOES give off these somehow-more-poisonous-than-other-woods'-gases, I'm not breathing them! (Unless the allegation is that even the merest
whiff, while loading the stove, is toxic? Dunno, but never noticed any problems.) Locust smoke
does have a distinctive smell, however, IMO--perhaps that's the source of the "poisonous" rumers? It's been a while, but I might characterize the smell as more acrid than the smoke of some woods--does that make sense?
Locust (yellow) is my
favorite wood to burn--but then I've never tried black locust.
Yellow locust burns HOT--I've actually had my little, uninsulated cottage as warm as 105F, briefly, up near the ceiling (in the room with the stove in it--not the whole, 480 sq. ft. cottage), in my stamped-steel, shipped-in-a-flat-box/bolt-together, no-name, small smoke dragon stove. Of course, it's a small, low-ceilinged room, and I probably could have done the same with well-seasoned oak, if I tried--but IIRC--I wasn't
trying. LOL Of course, a 10'x12' room heats up quick, with some other rooms closed off. But I've always preferred to burn locust, up at the cottage--there's plenty of it, and I believe it splits easier than most other woods--it tends to come apart cleanly, with less of the "stringy-ness" of the red oak we have up there.
Yellow locust, when it is getting toward the "coaling" phase,
actually gives off a blueish flame that I have not observed with other woods--or at least not nearly as often. And this is NOT in a secondary, EPA-certified stove with burn tubes; rather, it's a simple smoke dragon, and the low, blue flames are right above the wood itself.
Has anyone else noticed this? It reminds me of watching a natural gas flame burn....
I do think there may be more "leftovers" or "clinkers," after the fire is out, than with other woods, as was stated here. But IMO, that's a small price to pay, for the intense heat and even burn quality.
Also as was noted here--yellow locust seems unusually light, even when cutting it green, but even more so, when fully seasoned. I've always wondered how it could put out so much heat when it obviously doesn't weigh as much as oak, for example. I've always assumed the heavier the wood the bore BTU content, but yellow locust seems to disprove that. Any thoughts on the rationship between weight and BTU content?
Could the aforementioned "oilyness" of locust be the cause of it's excellent heating qualities, despite it's lesser weight?
It's a little coincidental that locust should come up as a topic here, now--yesterday (Thursday) the neighbor had the arborist who gives me free wood come and take out or "elevate" about 8 trees--we can actually see his house now, from the road! But one of them was a large locust tree, perhaps 60-70' tall, that had a major split and was threatening his house. The six-man crew made short work of the whole job--very impressive. The best part, however, was watching the arborist's crew hand carrying freshly bucked chunks of a 2'+ diameter locust tree, from the neighbor's, directly to my wood pile--a good feeling indeed!
I just love locust....
