Honey locust?

[Kafinlayson]

After doing a bit of reading on here, it appears that honey locust is a decent wood to burn. Not as good as black locust but I am not sure I could identify one of those until the leaves are back on. We moved to the country 2 years ago and I guess I never paid attention before but I walked around the edge of our timber and we have 23 honey locust trees about 35 to 55 feet high. What is the easiest way to get the thorns off of these dudes before bucking? I foresee the bobcat and grapple moving them away from where they fall.....

 

[sunfish]

It's good fire wood, high BTU. I've cut and burned a fair bit.
What I don't like is the bugs get to it bad and make a bunch powder. I use a chainsaw to get rid of the thorns...

 

[Cheesecutter]

if you girdle the trees to kill them, the thorns fall off in about a year. I tried a hatchet once to remove them. ONCE being the keyword there. Some of my HL have a few hundred thorns, but I've got a couple with 10s of thousands. Those few have earned my respect. Besides I have enough other wood I don't need to mess with them.

 

[Cheesecutter]

Be careful around those thorns, they'll puncture your Bobcat tires. and gloves, and shoes, and clothes, and.....

 

[bert the turtle]

I've got one honey locust and it is about the best deer baiting tree I've ever seen. Drops a few pods every day all through the season. I can't help you with regards to firewood out of it because it would be about the last tree I'll cut. I may even plant a few.

 

[olyman]

clean the thorns,, to as high as can reach,,with a small hatchet,,and a 5 gal pail..drop tree.. walk along side it,,and give it the hatchet treatment some more, till reach top,,or where you want to quit on branch size. throw pail of thorns on brush pile,,and use your favorite accelerant to light em up!!! time of thorn removal,,varies on amount of thorns!! and do wear leather gloves doing this!!! just be careful to check ground all around proximity of tree,,and some thorns may fly a ways when tree hits ground...that being said,,ill fight the thorns,,for locust.. dang that stuff burns hot.....and long....and is heavy......

 

[Vibes]

I've never heard the deer story about Homey Loc but that does make sense. I have one growing to close the house that needs to come down. Last fall a buck rubbed a little sumac tree growing out of my hedges right under it. As for as the thorns yea I just shave them with an ax or the chain.

Best thing with that Honey Loc is when you cut them, do it in the spring or early summer. Sprouts grow like crazy out of the root tips. They grow fast and If conditions are good, in 15 years you'll have another healthy supply of good burnings.

I have a bud with a smoke house. He likes to smoke hams with Honey Loc.

 

[mainewoods]

 

[Vibes]

BLASPHEMY!!!!

 

[danl]

I hate, despise and loath Honey locust... After about 20 years I have got rid of most of them. Many tractor tire flats later not to mention personal lacerations.
It makes decent but not wonderful firewood. The answer about girdling and letting them die is probably the best answer.
By the time I get done splitting and stacking most of the thorns fall off.
Those thorns will go right through a boot sole.

Something interesting I have seen on some big locust trees is a thorn grown inside the tree, just kind of swallowed up, and when you split it there is a 6 or 8" thorn intact inside the tree...

 

[mainewoods]

Do you guys enjoy patting porcupines too?

 

[sunfish]

I avoid honey locus & only cut it if I have to. Some of ours here have no thorns, but most do. We have too many.

 

[cheeves]

A lot of the honey locust around here have very little thorns. Could be the sandy soil! Out in Ohio though where I used to live the thorns were long and numerous! Got stabbed many a time. Not to mentioned screwed up back from the stuff! Still like and burn the stuff though. especially when it's cold!!

 

[aaron]

Thornless Honey Locust everywhere here in SW Ohio. It is great firewood too

 

[mainewoods]

I dislike trees that bite me back.

 

[haveawoody]

Honey locust is fine firewood, honey locust with thorns no so nice LOL.

If it's just a few thorns the best way is with a pair of hand shears and clip off all the thorns then drop tree.

If it's lots of thorns a few of the guys like to clear the brush starting about 5' away from the tree to about 15' away.
You can throw all the brush up around the trunk to help with step 2.
Have one of those pressure tanks for spraying chemicals and spray gasoline on all the thorned area, light the brush around the tree and watch 95% of the thorns burn away as the gas on the tree catches.
Make sure you didn't accidentally spray it on you or wear coveralls that you remove before lighting the brush.
Wood is all but unaffected with the fire.
Keep in mind this is only effective if the tree is semi alone, last thing you need is a runaway forest fire.

If it's crazy thorn covered lots of guys just walk away from the tree

 

[mainewoods]

Up here we don't have that problem. Plenty of oak ,maple,ash, beech and no thorns.

 

[Guswhit]

if you girdle the trees to kill them, the thorns fall off in about a year. I tried a hatchet once to remove them. ONCE being the keyword there. Some of my HL have a few hundred thorns, but I've got a couple with 10s of thousands. Those few have earned my respect. Besides I have enough other wood I don't need to mess with them.

Well if you lived closer to me I would come take all of you honey locust, gladly! I cut ALOT of it on the farm I've been at for the last 4 years. I have been trying to drop the trees into the timber or along side of the grove instead of in the field when I can and then take a long handled machete and trim the thorns off right there before winching them to my cutting/loading/staging area. It has worked well for me. What I have found in the larger trees is the thorns that end up growing inside or the tree apparently grew over the thorn and then you find one of those sharp boys inside while splitting!

 

[Holtby]

I remember those Honey Locust thorns from my farmstead youth as something to "Treat with Care" don't step on one barefooted !!!! Our yard & barnyard had several, so I learned early????

 

[haveawoody]

Holtby,

You sure got to admire how penetrating those honey locust thorns can be.
I think it's the only tree I wear safety boots to work around it, I learned runners are not honey locust proof the hard way LOL
Not a bad idea to wear safety glasses all the time working on honey locust, had a few close calls of thorns in the face and now never cut them without glasses on the entire time I work on one.