burning locoust

[Wood Doctor]

Tom Trees Is About Right...

not sure if you're serious or not, but this isn't true...

Around here, Tom Trees is about right. The only common species that beats black locust for heat content (BTU/Cord) is osage orange (hedge), which is not that easy to find. Take a look at this table of the top 16:

Honey locust is down the list a little, but not much. Note that the moisture content of black locust when cut green is not that high either--very desirable. That might help explain why it dries rather quickly, similar to ash.

 

[Peacock]

Black locust is great stuff. I've burned stuff that was cut with leaves on it just days after being split. I just checked the moisture content of some stuff I've got that was cut green in September. It's down to 18% already.

The only problem I have with it is the really thick bark that falls off in my truck on the way to wood deliveries...

 

[Wood Doctor]

Black locust is great stuff. I've burned stuff that was cut with leaves on it just days after being split. I just checked the moisture content of some stuff I've got that was cut green in September. It's down to 18% already.

The only problem I have with it is the really thick bark that falls off in my truck on the way to wood deliveries...

Thick bark on locust? Can't find it around here. Locust bark is thin compared to any species in this neck of the woods. You are pulling our legs aren't you?

 

[bore_pig]

Great chart Doc! Don't find Osage Orange here. That would mean that tomtrees is right. Lot's of guys I work with think I'm crazy going after Black Locust and burning it a couple of months or couple days after I cut it!

 

[NC4TN]

i have a chance of gitting free locoust next weekend never burned it befor wondering how much heat ? how long to season ? is it worth it ?

I'd rather have it as oak....

 

[Wood Doctor]

Great chart Doc! Don't find Osage Orange here. That would mean that tomtrees is right. Lot's of guys I work with think I'm crazy going after Black Locust and burning it a couple of months or couple days after I cut it!

I got this chart from a reputable source. My major complaint about it is that red elm seems a bit low in heat content from my experience. The rest look OK.

Remember that this is somewhat local. Live oak and white oak, for example, are both missing from the list, also missing are the hard birch trees, such as black birch and yellow birch. Bradford and Cleveland pear are also absent. All of these are excellent firewood.

 

[danrclem]

Black locust only has thorns (smallones) on first year wood. They may be small but they really smart. another drawback is the splinters you pick up. They are tiny and tend to go straight in so you can't pull em out.

Harry K

I've often wondered if the black locust thorns have some kind of chemical in them that make them hurt worse than other pricks. Some of the sticks that I've had seem to get infected real easy too.

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I like to use locust on those long cold nights. I've found that it burns best in my old Fisher if I get it burning really hot and then close a lot of the air off so that it will burn slower through the night.

 

[turnkey4099]

Thick bark on locust? Can't find it around here. Locust bark is thin compared to any species in this neck of the woods. You are pulling our legs aren't you?

No, he's not pulling legs. Has a thick, corrugated bark...enough so that falling cuts are difficult unless you have a saw with long, aftermarket dogs. Of course that is on the big trees.

Harry K

 

[scag52]

I'd rather burn straight locust than anything. What i like about it is it can lay on the groung for years and not even rot. The bark comes right off and the wood is solid.

 

[Peacock]

Thick bark on locust? Can't find it around here. Locust bark is thin compared to any species in this neck of the woods. You are pulling our legs aren't you?

No, he's not pulling legs. Has a thick, corrugated bark...enough so that falling cuts are difficult unless you have a saw with long, aftermarket dogs. Of course that is on the big trees.

Harry K

turnkey is right. Black locust has thick, irregular bark. Almost the consistency of corrugated cardboard.

You guys ever notice how the tree itself is usually not real round, kinda clover shaped. Sometime the bark isn't even touching the sapwood.

 

[Wood Doctor]

No, he's not pulling legs. Has a thick, corrugated bark...enough so that falling cuts are difficult unless you have a saw with long, aftermarket dogs. Of course that is on the big trees.

Harry K

Harry, that would mean that most of the locust around here is honey locust and not black locust. There are several varieties. Even the leaves are different in color from one variety of locust to the next. Note also the difference in bark thickness from one variety of oak to the next. Pin oak, for example, is in the red oak family but has thin bark compared to bur oak.

 

[turnkey4099]

Harry, that would mean that most of the locust around here is honey locust and not black locust. There are several varieties. Even the leaves are different in color from one variety of locust to the next. Note also the difference in bark thickness from one variety of oak to the next. Pin oak, for example, is in the red oak family but has thin bark compared to bur oak.

I wouldn't think it possible to confuse black and honey. The thorns are a giveaway. A long thorn on a Black wouldn't reach 1" and are never on old wood.

Lots of differetn types apparently. Even how it splits. I have cut a patch where it splits like a dream, move a few miles to another location and can only split it reasonably with a splitter.

Harry K

 

[KsWoodsMan]

Harry, I've wondered about the differences in how some wood splits . If it is out in the open I usually expect to get a work out splitting it. If it grew in a stand and doesn't get as much or any wind it seems to split much easier. I've heard to reffered to as 'wind shake'. If it grows in the wind it has to toughenup more then trees that grew sheltered from the wind.

I've wrongly been told that Honey Locust was Black Locust. I've just nodded, smiled and let them continue on with what they were saying. Two aspirins later they were forgotten after talking to them.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

I like to use locust on those long cold nights. I've found that it burns best in my old Fisher if I get it burning really hot and then close a lot of the air off so that it will burn slower through the night.

:agree2:

 

[toqua]

They also is a sunburst locust that flowers and has pods on it. the ones i got from the county last year were thorn less and resistant to the locust grub thats killing all the trees aroubd here. TOM

 

[danrclem]

I have saw honey locust that doesn't have very many thorns and some that don't have any thorns. I'm assuming that it's all honey locust unless there is a species that looks identical to the honey without thorns.

 

[Wood Doctor]

I have saw honey locust that doesn't have very many thorns and some that don't have any thorns. I'm assuming that it's all honey locust unless there is a species that looks identical to the honey without thorns.

Cross breeds with the blacks of the species. They are everywhere. Nothing to be concerned about. That's the way things are these days.