So I got a call today from the boss man. Says it'll be a while before i can start cutting timber on this new job So I decide to do the firewood thing. Went out and found me a few locust snags. Dry as a bone. I was a pretty happy guy. Locust is starting to become hard to find where I live.
Cut me some locust today.
- Thread starter madjoe
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WVhunter
ArboristSite Operative
Hard to beat Locust!!!!
Yes sir! I got more I'm hoping to get tomorrow. I'll take all that I can get lol
msmith
ArboristSite Operative
Love locust. 
I got some black locust. It is pretty hard to split but not bad with a splitter. It's is a very hard wood and does make excellent firewood. Very long lasting and hot burning.
Hard to believe, sorry to hear it. It grows like a weed in Maryland. Great burning wood.
I have around 80 cord BL in my stash, 90% split with a fiskars. The drier BL gets, the easier it splits. It is listed in wood charts for easy splitability. There is a problem starting a wedge or maul in a round though, many times they just bounce. A quick small kerf with a saw gives a spot to start a wedge. Usually I only have to wedge (or noodle) BL downsmall enough to pick up and then it is fiskars from there.
WVhunter
ArboristSite Operative
Not around here like it used to be, find it now along the edges of fields and roadways alot. I agree, I would just as soon burn Locust over about anything, if I could get enough.
The deer are bigger and the wood is more plentiful in Maryland. You don't have the competition that West Virginians have for these natural resources. When you speak of starting a fire in Maryland people have visions of torching a building in a riot or for insurance fraud purposes, and they want to give their over grown deer population birth control pills.
Babaganoosh
ArboristSite Operative
Don't get any splinters. They really mess you up.
Oh Yeah!! And they like to stick going straight in so you can't get ahold of them, stick out just far enough to snag on clothing at which point the bad words start.
Will spark at night with a maul
Also with a chain saw. I was bucking my first locust back in 1976 at dusk when I saw the pretty sparklies.
Harry K
The "sparkles" are actually sand that the tree draws out of the ground. That's what makes it pop so much when ya burn it.
I always thought the popping was tiny amounts water trapped in the cells that turned to steam and exspanded when the wood is burned?
I only mix a little Locust in with other woods to keep me from having to open windows ...stuff makes heat like coal!
I suppose the popping would be from water if you burn wet wood but, all species will do that. When you superheat glass ie sand that is the popping from dry locust. The grains of sand also cause the sparks when you cut locust. Love locust but the dryer it is the harder on your chain.
Grandma said it will burn your biscuits!
I always thought it was friction from the super dense wood. Just my idea....
I rank that in the Old Wives Tales category. There is no way for a tree to transport sand.
