Tree of the day

caveman · July 05, 2019, 07:53:42 AM

The Golden Raintree, yesterday's tree of the day, is Koelreuteria paniculata. It is easily confused with the Chinaberry tree. I would like to saw one. A lot of trees with pretty flowers also have desireable wood.

Magicman · July 05, 2019, 08:10:22 AM

Didn't know yesterday's but today's species brings back many memories which always included hard work.

lxskllr · July 05, 2019, 08:16:02 AM

They come up everywhere. Like a plague...

Ljohnsaw · July 05, 2019, 09:46:54 AM

As strong as iron, would one say?

Jack S · July 05, 2019, 10:31:40 AM

the old dairy farmer used to say. Kid if you are going to hang around here lets not be an ornament get to work

Don P · July 05, 2019, 01:56:16 PM

QuoteThe tree that won a war
And yet we could make the case that the black locust helped the United States win the War of 1812. The decisive battle of that war was fought on Lake Champlain. On Sept. 11, 1814, the American fleet, commanded by Commodore Thomas Macdonough, engaged the British fleet, commanded by Capt. George Downie (killed in action), in Plattsburg Bay.
The Americans won a decisive victory, essentially stopping the invasion forces, led by Sir George Prevost. Prevost was recalled to England to face a court martial for his actions but died before the trial was convened.
One of the reasons circulated for the British Navy's defeat was that English ships were built with oak nails (the large pins or trunnels that hold the wooden members of a ship together), while American ships were built with locust nails. As a result, when the cannonballs from the American fleet hit the British ships, those ships came apart. But when the shot from the British ships hit the American fleet, their ships held together — and that is the reason they lost the Battle of Plattsburg Bay.
The very next year, the British began importing thousands of locust nails to refit the British Navy. By 1820, the Philadelphia market alone was exporting between 50,000 and 100,000 locust nails to England per year. As locust continues in export, even to this day, some would say we have been selling weapons to the enemy ever since.

That article states that it has the highest beam strength of any north American wood, I'd need to check that but it is a great timberframing wood, low shrinkage, machines well albeit tough on tools and men. It goes on to say that a cord has the same number of btu's as a ton of anthracite.

JohnW · July 05, 2019, 04:12:39 PM

I wonder how much a cord of black locust weighs.

Black locust is great. I think Euell Gibbons even used to eat the inside bark (without ketchup or anything).

WDH · July 05, 2019, 04:53:11 PM

The flowers make good honey. Leaf is pinnate compound. Thorns are stipuar, i.e. two at each leaf axil like a rose bush.

Magicman · July 05, 2019, 06:56:20 PM

Telephone company pressure treated "open wire" cross arms were equipped with threaded Black Locust pins that the insulators screwed onto.

I wish that I had kept a few as souvenirs. Those are days long gone by. :

Don P · July 05, 2019, 08:39:49 PM

A quick google looks like it weighs between 4000-4600 lbs/cord so about half the btu's of hard coal by weight.

One other reference I saw said that it may have been the locust that John the Baptist survived on rather than the bug, I'd need lots of chocolate coating for either :D

Our leaves already have lots of leaf miner damage but our soils are sour, over the mountain where you leave the granite based Blue Ridge and get into the Valley and Ridge, think Shenandoah Valley and the mountains along I-81, it is more limestone and they seem to do better, oaks do better over here.

Magicman · July 05, 2019, 08:51:58 PM

Quote from: Don P on July 05, 2019, 01:56:16 PMThat article states that it has the highest beam strength of any north American wood

The "Engineering Toolbox" shows Black Locust exceeding all of the Oaks and being challenged only by the Hickorys in Fiber stress at Elastic Limit, Compressive Strength, and Sear Strength. The way I read the charts, Black Locust does indeed have the highest beam strength. I was surprised.

I often wonder what my Granddad used as bridge timbers? I am thinking probably White Oak because we had no Post Oak and not large enough Black Locust. Nothing else except maybe Sassafras would have been rot resistant enough to use.

tule peak timber · July 05, 2019, 09:00:42 PM

When it comes to strength, I build quite a bit of furniture from canyon live oak. The settlers out west used this oak for wagon axles, tools, and splitting wedges to fell giant redwoods. Crazy hard stuff.

caveman · July 05, 2019, 09:04:26 PM

Seems like a good bit of interest in Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia). This is one I seldom see. I appreciate the info sharing- I learned a good bit today. Enjoying a gentle rain in NC mountains right now.

Southside · July 05, 2019, 09:16:47 PM

Caveman - that must just about be the arctic circle for you!! :D

Don P · July 05, 2019, 11:18:09 PM

The Nantahala will frost your pumpkin any time of year :D

Black locust is the timber of log bridges around here. One of the reasons it was used for the glass insulator pins besides its rot resistance was that it didn't move much when wetted or dried. I think I have only one or two insulators and never thought to save a pin, they are all but disappeared now.

After Hugo we had tons of it on the ground, I jokingly call it the American teak. I called the wood products lab at NCSU and asked about using it for outdoor furniture, they thought it was a great idea. Another one of those projects that never got the round tuits.

This was one of the brackets for a roof made out of locust

caveman · July 06, 2019, 07:41:57 AM

I enjoy coming up here. My youngest daughter asked me if we could come back in November or December-she reminded me that she has never seen snow. That cold Nantahala water is just what the doctor ordered for these hot summer days. I mentioned to the girls just yesterday that they should go rafting while we are here.
Thanks to all who shared about the locust.

Today's tree is...

Magicman · July 06, 2019, 08:13:28 AM

If you had shown today's tree trunk it would have been a dead giveaway. I have sawn some big'uns and the QS can be striking.

lxskllr · July 06, 2019, 08:17:14 AM

Looks like one of my least favorite trees to limb with a machete. Every branch is hard won. OTOH, something like tulip polar makes you feel like a superhero :^D

Don P · July 06, 2019, 08:38:38 AM

The bodgers wood

In the regular NDS beam tables this one is in the highest strength species group. When we first moved here I didn't fully appreciate the mat root system these things have. There was a small cluster in the way and I chained them to the bumper of the truck. I gave a tug and nothing happened. So I backed up to give it some slack, braced and hammered down. I heard it let go and looked in the rear view mirror. Yup there was my bumper chained to the still happy trees :D

Magicman · July 06, 2019, 09:45:50 AM

I happen to have one in my side yard. Here is the "mat root system" of which you speak.

Much runoff water comes through this area but the roots hold what they can. It's time for a load of dirt.

caveman · July 06, 2019, 09:53:54 AM

I'll try to get some bark and bud pictures today. I may try to dig up a small one and put in a pot to take back home. I had a white pine growing until about two months ago. Some of these trees do not like the Central Florida climate.

DelawhereJoe · July 06, 2019, 06:23:19 PM

Its one of the most popular trees for lovers to scratch there names, I have 1 on my driveway that shows the claw marks from a raccoon as it climbed it.