Locust

[WNC]

Anyone sawed dried locust.  Looking for tips. Getting ready to give it a try.

[Brad_S.]

Welcome to the forum, WNC!  8) 8)

Despite it's hardness, locust really doesn't saw as badly as you think, even dry. Like any wood, a sharp blade will do the trick. Only tricky part about locust is that if the logs are small or you are taking thick cuts, you will often find tension wood which makes cutting consistent thickness lumber a problem, but there's not much you can do about that.

[scsmith42]

WNC - welcome!

Re Locust, depends on the species.  Black and yellow locust are hard - honey and white are not.

I put up a fence last year with yellow locust posts.  Chainsaw chains dulled 20X faster than when cutting treated pine posts.

Scott

[Greg]

I personally have never seen a (black) locust tree get large enough and stay rot free enough to mill. I have often wondered where folks find solid logs to even bother milling lumber from.

Maybe its just the local soil or climate ???, but I'd say only 1 out of 10 the black locust on my place are rot free. None them over 10" in diameter...

Greg

[Raphael]

I know of one in Beacon NY that's ~40" DBH, over 40' to the first branch.  It appears to be very healthy.

[thecfarm]

WNC,welcome to the forum.Stick around,this is a great place.

[WNC]

Thanks for your comments. I'll post you on how it goes. We have plenty of 20 inch yellow/black locust around here.

[urbanlumberinc]

I recently sawed a 33"dbh black locust that was aprox 90' tall and was free from rot.  I did a little research and found out that black locust was a favorite of the carpenters in the Royal Navy.  It was often used to fashion ship rigging on the tall ships.  As for the sawing of the stuff goes, have extra blades on hand cuz this stuff dulls cutters quickly.

[Dan_Shade]

I had a lead on a very large black locust this past weekend, unfortunately it ended up being mostly rotted and not worth too much :(

[GregS]

I have doing some beams and fence post lately with black locust and I agree the stuff dulls blades quick.  I love the musty mustard smell.  The lumber is very strong and everything I've read nice to work.  The log price is right if you can find decent logs. 

[Frickman]

Green locust doesn't saw too bad on a circle mill. The dry stuff will knock the corners off the teeth almost as fast as dirt and and will. I usually wait until my bits are almost worn out before I saw locust. That way I have an excuse to change bits.  ;)