Locust

[sunriseseamless]

I had a bunch of locust trees blow down.  What would be good uses for them.  Several are large enough to mill.

[Southside]

Black or Honey?

[Wlmedley]

Don't let them go to waste.They can be used anywhere you would usually use treated lumber and they mill fine.I'm assuming they are black locust and not honey locust which are not rot resistant.

[Ron Scott]

Rot resistant fence posts and slats.

[aigheadish]

We tried our hand at some container gardening this year. We aren't interested in much more than some tomatoes, chili peppers, and maybe some spinach and garlic, that kind of stuff. This year, so far has gone well and has been enjoyable due to easy access to the planters, just on the other side of the fenced off area for the dog.

As we looked at this space we've discussed building much larger boxes, lining the fenced area, to hold more dirt to be able to plant a bit more (this year was only tomato and peppers).

She's been asking me to take down 4 or 5 dead honey locust trees for a while now, and though I'm scared of the thorns, I'll likely get to it in the next little while. There are also critters living in some of the trees, so they'll have to find some new homes...

After thinking about the trees, and the garden, we've decided to take the trees down, buck them up into manageable pieces then split them down the middle, to create the boxes for the planters. I've heard they will likely outlast us, sitting on the ground like that, and I think it should look pretty cool. We'll then support and line the inside of the boxes with some weed fabric and add dirt. I'll post some pictures as it gets done.

Well crud, I'm rereading and seeing wlmedley's comment that the honey locust isn't as rot resistant? Hmm...

[sunriseseamless]

How do you tell the difference between black and honey?  My phone app says black but they do have very aromatic blossoms.

[Southside]

The thorns on my Black Locust are 1/2"-3/4" long at most while those on my Honey Locust look like something that would be mounted on a deer head in Cabelas. 

[aigheadish]

I thought mine were black (I get confused about it all the time) but the thorns on mine are huge, gnarly bunches of spikes. Google poorly suggests the big thorns are Honey locusts.

I didn't understand what @Southside meant by the deer, but I'm taking that as antlers? Yes, I agree!

[RetiredTech]

We have honey locust on our place. The trunk and branches are covered with long spikes and clusters of long spikes. The bark is grayish. The place next to us has black locust, some shorter thorns mostly on the limbs. The bark of the black locust is very dark and more heavily furrowed. I wish I could trade. I could use a few black locust trees.

[Ron Scott]

The thorns of the locust vegetation make it a good natural barrier where you want to discourage the travel of people and large animals.

[newoodguy78]

Is honey locust more of a southern species than black? Being from the northeast can't say I've ever seen a honey locust that I recall. 
Quite familiar with black. Very underutilized wood imo. It's amazing how fast they grow in such a short amount of time, yet it's more resistant to the elements than any other wood I've dealt with that can be sourced locally. And the hardness of it is amazing especially when dry. Almost impossible to drive a common nail into a dry piece. 
This spring I was putting in some railroad ties to use as gateway posts with a pounder. Got to one and the noise when the anvil struck the top was noticeably different from some of the others, further it went down the worse it got. By the time it was over the ringing when the anvil met the post was intense to the point of being painful through earplugs. Sounded like heavy steel on steel. 
Got looking the post over and plunge cut a little bit sure enough, black locust. 

[beenthere]

Honey locust range map

https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/tree/gletri/all.html

[Southside]

You have seen it, probably leaned up against some of the younger stuff by the turf, just didn't realize it.  Remind me this fall and I can show you both at the same time. 

[Sod saw]

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Retiredtech's description of the bark is correct.

Doc has old posts showing some of his projects using Honey Locust.  It is a very nice wood to work with . The Honey Locust that I have cut has more light colored stripes than the Black Locust and is not as rot resistant as Black Locust.

Black Locust, many times, has large pockets of rot in the middle.  Especially where most trees would have the best saw log near the bottom of the tree.  This ensures that a good amount of Black Locust is used for fire wood (around here).

Try cutting some of each for a small furniture project.


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