The Locusts Are Coming!

Dave Shepard · January 11, 2013, 07:03:07 PM

Speaking of hard to mill, the only time I've ever been able to make the 51 HP Perkapiller really lug down was on a 12"x12" black locust cant that had been sitting on the ground for 14 years. I had a fresh 4° on, and it cut great, but I could lug the engine down pretty well.

JohnW · January 11, 2013, 07:50:05 PM

If a boat is close, and somebody's building one (or a vessel whatever that is), then I'd guess a boat dock, pier, warf, whatever you call it over there.

tyb525 · January 11, 2013, 07:53:10 PM

Man I love black locust!

Sawdust Lover · January 11, 2013, 08:11:19 PM

Heatshields for a new space shuttle at NASA or Richard Petty is remodeling his booth at Daytona? 8)

Okrafarmer · January 11, 2013, 11:19:32 PM

Quote from: JohnW on January 11, 2013, 07:50:05 PM
If a boat is close, and somebody's building one (or a vessel whatever that is), then I'd guess a boat dock, pier, warf, whatever you call it over there.

A vessel could be a boat, a ship, a canoe, a submarine, a hovercraft, or-- an artery, I suppose. :D

MJD · January 12, 2013, 07:01:31 AM

I hope the locust is better in your area than here, in this area anything over 12" seems to have center rot 80% of the time, Good luck.

Okrafarmer · January 12, 2013, 11:06:04 PM

Some of these trees definitely have center rot, but we will be able to make boards down to 4" wide, so we will salvage a good bit as long as the tree was alive recently.

We went and made a logging strategy today. The Book says that locust is "a short-lived tree" so we decided to go ahead and log off as many of Profdan's mature locusts as possible. We have seen that he has already lost a large number of them. Smaller healthy ones we will leave. Looks like we will take the dozer in there to log with, and do a "worst-first" selective cut of much of his 14 acres-- at least what we can access. A lot of this is 100% slopes or more, and will have to be done either with winch (we don't have one on the dozer) or with long cable pulled in increments with a helper to get the logs down to the logging road. We should get several thousand bf of locust out of there, as well as a few other species that have either recently blown down or are in danger of dying or blowing down. I may also get my first beech log out of this project. There are several very old trees on the property. All the great healthy ones we will probably leave for the most part except the mature locust. Though it wouldn't surprise me if we miss a few of them. Here are a few pics I took today.
A somewhat healthy mature locust (leaning tree)

Profdan cuts into a downed locust log and finds some good wood and some rot inside.

A rather large locust, still alive, with a dead snag just beyond it. This locust is around 24" diameter, and is showing some rot and structural problems, but is still alive.

loggah · January 13, 2013, 08:31:42 AM

There is some nice old growth hardwood in there.

Okrafarmer · January 13, 2013, 05:23:42 PM

Not sure, but I think the locusts are relatively young for the site, but there are indeed some big old hardwoods in there, including a beech around 3' in diamater on the property. A giant oak fell in a gully years ago, and measures somewhere on the order of 140' long. If/when we go in there and cut the wood we're talking about, I will measure the oak with my 100' tape and get a more accurate figure on it. There are some good 3' oaks and poplars there, along with some 2' hickories, and various other trees. As far as that goes, there are a lot of smaller trees on the property too. The bigger ones may have been ones that got missed back in the day when it may have been logged, or maybe a fire came through at one point. Several of the locusts are around the 24-28" size range.

red oaks lumber · January 13, 2013, 08:35:29 PM

i think its the ss minnow.
i dont know anything about locust but, any live edge lumber i have produced the whole tree had to be alive and healthy, nothing dead on the outside.

Brad_S. · January 13, 2013, 10:14:38 PM

Building an ark maybe? Do you know something we don't?

Much of the beech I've ever sawn suffers the same fate as locust... heart rot. Not neccesarily at the butt either but sometimes well up the tree with sound wood above and below. Looks a lot like maple but rather unstable.

Okrafarmer · January 13, 2013, 11:07:30 PM

The live-edge bit is not for looks, but so that they will be able to get full use of the board, to cut out odd shapes. It should just mean that the rotten sapwood won't count when I tally the board footage. I will only charge board footage for sound wood.

Okrafarmer · January 13, 2013, 11:10:43 PM

Quote from: Brad_S. on January 13, 2013, 10:14:38 PM
Building an ark maybe? Do you know something we don't?

Well, I've got to be careful not to respond too religiously here, but if you read the Book, it says that the world will never be flooded again, so I wouldn't worry specifically about that!

Someone is building a vessel, and they are planning to use this locust for the ribs. It will be cut up into various sizes and shapes and matched to templates to mix and match shapes and sizes, since each rib is slightly different from the rest.

loggah · January 14, 2013, 08:16:53 AM

As heavy as that stuff is they must be building a submarine !! ;D Don

Okrafarmer · January 14, 2013, 07:05:38 PM

Quote from: loggah on January 14, 2013, 08:16:53 AM
As heavy as that stuff is they must be building a submarine !! ;D Don

Let's hope not! That's not their intention. . . .

Okrafarmer · January 14, 2013, 07:07:08 PM

They just confirmed they want the whole 3,000 bf.

They just need the first 1,000 bf ASAP. Err. . . anybody have any locust logs they want to cut down and sell??

loggah · January 14, 2013, 07:13:16 PM

Logging and sawing !! feast and famine !! good luck getting your logs pronto . Don

Dave Shepard · January 14, 2013, 07:23:29 PM

Does the USPS have a large cylindrical flat rate box for those? :D

mesquite buckeye · January 14, 2013, 07:25:42 PM

Quote from: Okrafarmer on January 14, 2013, 07:07:08 PM
They just confirmed they want the whole 3,000 bf. They just need the first 1,000 bf ASAP. Err. . . anybody have any locust logs they want to cut down and sell??

Mine are mostly either rotten, dead or not so big. I'm still looking for a nice one to cut, even though I've got acres of them. :(

Locust should be cheaper than teak, and should work just as well.

Skoalbandit78 · January 14, 2013, 07:38:01 PM

One sure fire way of telling if a locust has a soft center is to look and see if it has any toad stools on the side of it. That usually holds true for honey locusts, but I am not sure if the same holds true for black locusts. Hope you have good luck with filling your quota.

mesquite buckeye · January 14, 2013, 07:41:51 PM

Quote from: Skoalbandit78 on January 14, 2013, 07:38:01 PM
One sure fire way of telling if a locust has a soft center is to look and see if it has any toad stools on the side of it. That usually holds true for honey locusts, but I am not sure if the same holds true for black locusts. Hope you have good luck with filling your quota.

My rotted black locusts almost always have conks on them. Big woody ones.