Honey locust

I scrounged my first decent haul of honey locust in March. Wondering what the seasoning time is. Is it comparable to oak? Or more like soft maple or something in between?

 

Id give it at least a couple Summers. Have a cord CSS from Summer/Fall 2020 that will get sold this Fall. My first time scrounging any. Havent checked MC on it.

Good stuff there Dave and nice score. Rare score for me. Id love to get more.

 

A little better than red oak, not quite as good as white oak. I havent burnt any yet myself. If it’s anything like black locust it only gets better with age. Nice thing about locust is it won’t rot or lose btus in a stack. Seems to increase in density and btus the longer it’s left to age. YMMV

 

Honey "locust" is kind of a deceptive name. Other than having a superficial resemblance to black locust leaves, the tree is completely unrelated to the rot-resistant black locust. From my extremely limited experience cutting it, it is a very dense wood like BL is though. I can't claim to have any firsthand knowledge of burning it yet, as the little bit that I do have needs more time to dry. People claim 3 years so that's what I'll give it. I'm in no rush to make it disappear from my stacks.

 

I would definitely give it 3 years before trying to burn it. In my experience it’s best to leave it outside & uncovered because the boring insects do less damage to it this way. The debris they leave behind is basically fine saw dust like from shop saws & such.

I put some HL in an old wooden corn crib with plenty of airflow & the borers made an absolute mess out of it, I had to wear goggles & a dust mask when getting it out.

The stuff I have outside uncovered has some borers but very minimal compared to the stuff with a roof over it.

It burns hot & is best suited to starting on a bed of hot coals. In my experience it’s not good for starting up cold.

 

Honey locust depending on location and size of splits 2-3 years drying time. towards the top btu , very dense, long burn, good coaling, you do need a good bed of hot coals to get it going. its one of my go to for long burn in the cold months. like other have bugs like it also - similar to Hickory in that respect, burn wise also

 

I have a pile of honey & black that was split around 2016 give or take a year with no king of top cover. Stacked it in totes last fall but still haven't burned any of it. No rot and solid as the day it was split. I have had some with rot, but it was from sick trees that had the rot already started. May I'll burn some next year, but my hoarder side says once it's burned its gone and only have a couple cords of it. "Must save my precious".

 

Out where I am, it is always windy, dry and summers are hot, so I can get away with 2 years, but 3 is better, if it was a good solid tree to begin with. If the tree was going south, 2 years is more than enough and preferable, IMO.

 

Someone posted this from the "Resource" section on the forum and it's a fantastic chart.
Firewood BTU & Drying Chart

 

I've found, in my experience, most of the info on that chart to be accurate. At least with the species I've used.

 

I agree. It's accurate with the few I've dealt with as well. It's a dang good starting point anyway.

 

I have about 3-4 cords from a big scrounge 2 years ago. I burned some of the driest bark less splits this winter and it burned fine, I’m giving the rest another year. It is the highest BTU that I have so I’m saving it for over night burns only.

it was a pleasure to hand split, but very heavy/dense. By far my favorite wood so far.

 

I agree...2 years, maybe, barely...3 years is much better.

 

This wood was a standing dead HL, fell and sat for 3/4 of a year before I blocked it up. Split some today after bringing it home Nov last year. This represents the middle ground of 3 readings. Very curious to see how long it will take to get to 20%. Seems like it’s holding on pretty good.


Sorry for the glare

 

I’d give it at least 3 years. I had a lot of hissing wet wood after 3 years. I don’t have optimal drying conditions so I give it 4 years. One others things is that hickory borers really like the honey locust. They make a heck of a powdery mess of your stacks.