Black Locust as Firewood??????

C

coote

Joined
Apr 3, 2006
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Black Locust is Robinia pseudoacacia right?

It is a heck of a dense wood, and I always thought it should burn well.... although it probably takes ages to dry.

We've just had a storm here, and a couple of these trees fell over at my mother's place. I was cutting it up, but during the job a couple of people said that the black locust they'd tried to burn appeared to be fairly poor firewood.

So has anybody here tried it? I understand it grows well in the USA.

Of course it is meant to be a good wood for making bows. There is a decent log that I could split for staves if I could work up the enthusiasm.

Trees came down all around the region during the storm. It is one of the worst storms I can remember.

Somebody managed to get a video of a falling tree narrowly missing a car right in the city. Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtCzlZogjZQ
 
Great video! LOL!!

I have burned tons of locust- black and yellow. We used to cut them for fence posts and all the leftover was firewood. Absolutely love the stuff, burns long/hot and little ash, almost no resin. Takes more BTU to get it going than oak but it does the job once it gets hot enough.

2Door
 
Damn! That was a close one! You can tell the guy stopped and looked when the tree hit, then floored it in panic when he relaized he almost bought it. :D
 
Whoever told you that is wrong. Black locust is one of the hottest burning woods. It isnt easy to start but once you have some coals going it burns long and hot.

Heres a link to Firewood Ratings ----> Firewood Ratings
 
When I was a kid we heated the house with wood and locust was used for the overnight firebox load :) Usually still had fire in the morning with a couple of good sized pieces.
 
Here in the NE USA in the old days the grew locust for that purpose because it had about the highest BTUs .That family ,Acacia ,is a legume and they are all good hardwoods.They find use as furniture, guitars, etc. Mesquite,koa, kentucky coffee tree, are some of the members.
 
It burns excellent,but fiercely,and I take shavings with me ,along with birch bark,if I don't have fatwood.
 
Most of the old stone rows along the fields on the farm that I grew up on were grown up in cherry and black locust.Whenever we cut it back,we always burned what we cut,it was mixed in with oak,ash and maple but it burned fine.
 
I was chopping and splitting some wood over my friends house and someone said it might have been locust.
I'm not sure how to tell if it was... but it burned long and hot. :D

and it was HARD stuff.
you should've seen what happened when my friend tried to chop some of it with his ontario machette... BIG ripple in the edge.

and when I split it, my blade was hot to the touch. (dense stuff)
 
lol

I don't know if I just never noticed this before (if it happens when you split wood) or if it was just this stuff but it was pretty cool either way.
:D
 
Thanks guys. I've burned heaps of wood in my time, but I haven't tried to burn much black locust. It looks like good firewood, and I was surprised to hear bad things about it. I reckon the stuff that people had difficulty with must have still been too wet. I reckon it would take ages for dense stuff like this to dry out.

It is meant to be reasonably durable to use for fenceposts.... so I was surprised to see one of the big windfalls with quite rotten roots.

Thanks for your thoughts.
 
Since we love blades, this comment from that forum is my favorite :D :

"Hard to work? Well, it's not balsa. Whaddaya expect when it's practically the most durable and stable wood available? Use sharper tools."
 
I want to make a stout walking stick / cudgel) from black locust. me thinks a whack with a locust stick will hurt!
 
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