The Forestry Forum

This past weekend a guy asked me to mill some black locust logs. He says the tree was at least 24" dbh. I've never cut that species before or even ever seen a piece of the stuff before as it is not common in these parts. I know it's hard but how hard? Is it like and exotic or more like just hard maple for example? Thanks, tc

i had about 60 logs milled last fall. When its green it doesn`t seem to be any harder than the oak we did at the same time. Locust gets really hard as it seasons. We did find that the bigger around the log, the worse the yield was, a lot more opportunityfor the cavitys and bugs to work their magic, a couple of the biggest base logs were useless.

Probably the best untreated wood for ground contact and resistance to rot.  Fenceposts, landscaping timbers last in ground for decades. Also for outdoor furniture, composters, etc etc.  Agree with above post about hardness like oak and harder when dried out.  No match for sharp bandsaw blades.  bright yellow when sawn turns a buff color when dried. Open and pronounced grain.

I'd love to try some Black Locust, but now having moved to Northern Ontario I'll not likely get a chance. I did mill a bunch of Honey Locust a couple of years ago. It was from a large tree (24" DBH), and the wood it produced was beautiful! It cut just like Red Oak for the most part. Black may be different.

cheers

John

Quote from: terrifictimbersllc on September 16, 2010, 03:48:58 PM
Probably the best untreated wood for ground contact and resistance to rot.  Fenceposts, landscaping timbers last in ground for decades. Also for outdoor furniture, composters, etc etc.  Agree with above post about hardness like oak and harder when dried out.  No match for sharp bandsaw blades.  bright yellow when sawn turns a buff color when dried. Open and pronounced grain.

I agree, around here, the Amish refer to it as "the permanent fence post".