Still had some wood to go back for from the weekends score. I noticed some long downed BL in his woods. Many years from the looks of it. Asked the homeowner and he said take what i wanted. Some remnant logs from past cutting too. Always metal lurking somewhere. Didnt hit it luckily. Down so long another BL started growing around it. Wonder how long its been laying there? Stuck the MM and 18%. Enough to make a heaping load. Another downed tree at the back of his woods ill get in the future. I dont take much in the way of dead wood, but ill take all of this i can get. Rather hard to come by around here.
I would take BL like that all day. No bark, easy to buck into manageable size rounds, and splits with ease. Sounds like bowling pins banging together. I have several trees down that look just like the last pic. The loose bark is telling me it's time to get them, though I could leave them there for several years yet. Have to get to them before the ants do. Yet another nice haul for Black locust Brad.
"If a tree falls in the forest and Brad isn't there, does he still hear it?" Yeah, and if he doesn't hear it, he can sniff it out! Nice. If you didn't work so hard for all your scrounges, you'd be permanent holder of the "you suck" award! Don't you ever get sore?
Boggles the mind how much wood you process from scrounges. Beautiful wood! You have a pic above of a round's cross section showing the growth rings and it's amazing how fast BL grows in its early years, evident by the wide rings followed by narrower rings.
Im over 50 and yes I do get sore. This was a PITA as i had to carry out of woods less than 50', but was up hill. Had i not had room idve left it there. How much land do you have to cut from Dave?
IME the only ants ive seen in BL either dead or alive was in punky heartwood. Being as rot resistant as it is no insects seem to touch it when down. Tree was bad at stump level and i left the bottom 4' as it was VERY hollow. If you cant get to it, buck into a few long pieces and prop off the ground.
The easy part is done, cut and haul. I have three cord of wood from the last weeks scrounging to split and stack. I hate to get that much in rounds behind as my normal MO has been to split ASAP when it gets to my place. This wood was dumped at my friends. I wanna make racks before i start splitting it Ive seen growth rings almost 3/4" on some. BL is a fast growing tree and should be commercially grown (it may be already) for what value it has. A comparable South American grown tree takes hundreds of years to reach the same size.
As long as it isn't privately owned..... There are a few logging companies that prohibit cutting on their lands now. Actually, most of them. Dumb a$$es pretty much ruined it for everyone once they started cutting off the log piles. There is still a lot of forestry land for cutting by permit. BTW, last year, they just waived the permit entirely due to the covid.
Yeah the heart wood is where they seem to hit. Ive seen where a branch broke off and the ants got in. Destroyed the log 18" either direction, then its totally solid all of a sudden. Ive learned not to give up on a BL log if I hit a bad spot.
The one The guy burned some and when i went back the next day with the second half cord he said he liked it. Him and his son were stacking it as i unloaded and he commented on the thud it makes. He liked the coaling. Also liked the very little mess it left on his paved driveway. Told him to mix with the other wood he had on hand. Seemed like an experienced burner. "I might as well buy the highest btu wood" was his comment. I have another 1.5 - 2 cord of the same looking to sell. I can mix some of yesterdays load in if need be.
