Honey Locust...A Love/Hate Relationship

[Wood Doctor]

Split Locust Whenever You Want To

I started bucking and splitting my locust last night. Easy easy.

One of the nice things about locust is that you don't have to let it dry very much before you split it. I generally wait at most a month for the rounds to dry and that is it. I wish I could say the same for elm or cottonwood.

 

[turnkey4099]

Just threw a chunk of B Locust on the fire. It's that awkward time of year. Really too warm to run a fire but too cool to do without any heat.

Start in the morning manually splitting my arrears of a bout 4 cord still waiting from last year...in between doing a bit of mowing; first mowing this year and it will only be "patching" here and there.

Harry K

 

[smus]

We have quite several "thorn trees" here on the farm. I plan to tackle a few of them this year. I have read that the old timers used to spray diesel fuel on the tree then would light it burning the sharp points off the thorns. Also heard of using a LP weed burner to burn them off as well. Seems like it might help, I am going to give it a go.

 

[Constrictor]

One of the nice things about locust is that you don't have to let it dry very much before you split it. I generally wait at most a month for the rounds to dry and that is it. I wish I could say the same for elm or cottonwood.

Why would you have to wait at all before splitting?

 

[iowa]

Why would you have to wait at all before splitting?

Dunno. I split 4 big honey locust logs today. It splits real easy. Easier than oak!

 

[turnkey4099]

Why would you have to wait at all before splitting?

You really don't except for the big, green rounds where your wedge doesn't hold unless youcut a kerf first. For at least Black Locust, it is an easy splitting wood and the dryer it gets, the easier it splits.

Harry K

 

[Wood Doctor]

You really don't except for the big, green rounds where your wedge doesn't hold unless you cut a kerf first. For at least Black Locust, it is an easy splitting wood and the dryer it gets, the easier it splits.

Harry K

+1. I've also found that to be true for mulberry, ash, oak, and just about about any other hardwood that there is. Let the round sit for a few weeks and then split it. Some hardwoods take much longer, of course, especially elm. You can split the straight-grained hardwoods much sooner, but even they behave better if you let them sit awhile after bucking to length.