Alex
ArboristSite Lurker
Been reading a little bit and was wondering what kind of market, if any, is there for black locust logs in Indiana? Just curious
Black locust
- Thread starter Alex
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bucked & split, seasoned firewood. There are several places to see cartoon about " my high priced black alnut tree" better describe than I can do. My avatar shows glad you took it away for free table top after I sliced the 100" long log into 15 pieces. I have yet to pay for a log. Persons w/log too large for the saw they have donate a lot of lumber 2 me (-;
JDP
ArboristSite Lurker
If I were you I'd get online and try to find any wooden boat builders near the lake. A good friend of mine is a professional boat builder/restorer, and regularly uses Black Locust as a substitute for White Oak.
ReggieT
Addicted to ArboristSite
Kinda ironic you mentioned black locust and reside in Indiana.
We were in South Bend for Thanksgiving, and I noticed a tons of black locust forest right down form St. Marys Inn close to University of Notre Dame...I'm still drolling!!
windthrown
361 Junkie
It is great firewood. I get it here for free at times because no one really knows what it is out here in the west. Or they do not know how to burn it. I got a free split and cured half cord of BL from a wood hoarder in town who said, "I hope you have a good wood stove for this stuff!" He apparently could not burn it. He had 20 cords of Doug fir in his racks. So I filled my truck with the wood and thanked him, and tossed it onto my Englander 30 stove 2 logs at a time, and it burns just fine. No magic to it. I still have about 30 splits left of that for the cold weather when I need a heat boost from the stove. It compares to white oak in heat, and lasts forever (white oak tends to rot here over time, as carpenter bees hunt for and nest in white oak wood). If people knew what it was, you cold sell it for $300 a cord here. That is what oak goes for here.
Out where I live in the north Oregon Cascades there are several ghost towns where all that is left are BL stands that were planted by the wagon train pioneers here. They are exceptional for using or fence posts, as they do not rot. Which is why they were brought out here from the Midwest and planted in the 1800s. It is considered an invasive species here now. No market for it here though, it is considered a trash species. No one mills it here that I am aware of.
Out where I live in the north Oregon Cascades there are several ghost towns where all that is left are BL stands that were planted by the wagon train pioneers here. They are exceptional for using or fence posts, as they do not rot. Which is why they were brought out here from the Midwest and planted in the 1800s. It is considered an invasive species here now. No market for it here though, it is considered a trash species. No one mills it here that I am aware of.
If you can find straight without defects makes wonderful decking/decks. Truck/trailer decks etc.
Hard as hell to mill, don't try it seasoned.
Wish I had some as need framing for my deck
Hard as hell to mill, don't try it seasoned.
Wish I had some as need framing for my deck
windthrown
361 Junkie
Ya, that would make good deck wood. Decks do not last out here with all the rain, even if they are made out of cedar or redwood. Someone built a Trex deck next to where I was living in coastal Sonoma County, CA about 8 years ago, and the thing was disintegrating from the sunlight and salt air there. It was only a few years old and turning into sawdust.
We have quite a bit of BL here in the NYC northern burbs, considered an invasive also by DT DEP. I love it. I find it easy to process into firewood, but it takes a while to properly dry deep-in. As a wood materials-scientist put it, it has "abundant tyloses". Those are the natural plugs that form in the sap-conducting vessels of the wood. His accompanying 10X photograph showed the vessels hugely clogged with tyloses.
So you give it time to dry. When you burn it, with the bark off, it leaves very little ash- a plus.
I find it doable for chainsaw milling, but no walk in the park. The heartwood is extremely durable in contact with the soil, and it's almost all heartwood, since it generally has only the outer couple of annual rings as sapwood. Kinda like American chestnut that way. We're looking for more choice logs to mill for outdoor stuff at huge Audubon center in town. Fantastic stuff for walkways and supports in marshes.
So you give it time to dry. When you burn it, with the bark off, it leaves very little ash- a plus.
I find it doable for chainsaw milling, but no walk in the park. The heartwood is extremely durable in contact with the soil, and it's almost all heartwood, since it generally has only the outer couple of annual rings as sapwood. Kinda like American chestnut that way. We're looking for more choice logs to mill for outdoor stuff at huge Audubon center in town. Fantastic stuff for walkways and supports in marshes.
Birdhunter1
ArboristSite Operative
They make great fenceposts, cut them 8' long and split the big ones lengthwise or use the small ones themselves. I could show you posts in the ground that are 50+ years old in the ground and still strong.
Alex
ArboristSite Lurker
I burn quite a bit of it. Definitely takes a while to dry. I ask because we have a stand of BL between two fields. Only cut the stuff that falls in storms. Just hate to burn up valuable wood, but I will, it keeps me plenty warm.
ReggieT
Addicted to ArboristSite
Has anyone noticed that it takes one hella va fire already established before black locust cooperates and begins to burn?
windthrown
361 Junkie
Has anyone noticed that it takes one hella va fire already established before black locust cooperates and begins to burn?
That is what the guy that gave me the half cord of BL thought, but it is not so. I tossed in a BL log here the other night into a bed of low burning maple coals, and it burst into flame instantly. It burned pretty fast too. BL just has to be really dry. 2-3 seasons dry. O/w it is not gonna burn very well. But I am hoping that people cannot figure out how to burn it, so I can get more of it to burn myself.
Alex
ArboristSite Lurker
Never had much trouble with it burning. I never load up all locust either. usually mix it with some poplar or cherry.
ReggieT
Addicted to ArboristSite
I've never had any of it burst into flames, but it burns fine with a good coal bed.
Probably could stand a tad more seasoning I reckon...
Probably could stand a tad more seasoning I reckon...
jrhannum
ArboristSite Member
My Grampa was US Forest Service 1908-1948 in several southern Idaho National Forests; one of his stories had to do with the Government harvesting Black Locust seeds from mature stands, then disbursing those seeds to all of the field stations with the mandate to plant them so that new stands of fence-post wood would be available throughout the west. On one trip we viewed a long string of such trees along the South Fork Payette River, planted by employees of the Garden Valley Ranger District including Elmer Cook Ross (My Grampa).
