stinking tom

[reubenT]

Anyone of ya ever try sawing stinkin tom?   (tree of heaven in the tree books)     I tried it once.   made some nice lumber I thought,  until it dried.   Looked like the waves of the ocean.   twisted every whichaway.   Totally unusable.   

And then black locust,   makes good exceedingly rot resistant lumber, slightly harder than hickory.     I have heard it's dangerous to saw on a circle mill, Ive sawed a lot of it,  worked fine on a band mill.   I'll put some safety bars over my circle blade when I get it set up and try it anyway.  the slabs and boards will flex inward sometimes as they're sawed, can grab on the back side of blade and be thrown supposedly.   

[Ron Wenrich]

I've sawn tens of thousands of bf of black locust on a circle mill.  We would saw for days at times of just locust.  The dust is fine and is irritating.  Never had a problem with anything being thrown.  The tendency for some is to get too thin of a slab that may fall down between the saw and the off bearing table.  That heats a blade up really fast.  That can cause problems if you're not paying attention.  But, I wouldn't rate it as any more dangerous than any other wood.

I've sawn Tree of Heaven, and put it in pallet wood. 

[dgdrls]

Black locust behaved fine with my swing mill.

DGDrls

[reubenT]

Glad to hear black locust can work ok on a circle mill,  I like using it everywhere treated lumber is normally used.