I love HL. I have a ton of it in my stacks. But I've found it really needs 3 years to dry out properly to burn in an EPA stove. It's heavy AF too.
Those thorns are crazy, I've never seen anything like it and hope I never run into it myself. Glad to hear you didn't get stuck!
Nice find Brad! What town was that in? Been some decent offerings on Marketplace as of lately. That massive PI vine would have probably turned me away from that log! Hope it doesn’t bite you. I get itchy just looking at those PI vines.
It was Wallingford actually not far from you. Behind the old Food Bag (now Citgo) on Quinnipiac St. The lot is owned by Citgo and the work was being done for him. I had my sweat shirt on and was pretty mind full around it. Haven't had any itchies on my arms or hands so I think I'm in the clear. It shows up 24-48 hrs after on me.
Oh nice! That’s super local! And a great score. Glad you were able to grab all that up…plus the burl! Awesome! That’s great news! Glad you were able to avoid that?
Yes, it has the thorns. We have never cut any. Very rare down here. We had one years ago when I was little on the lot next to dad's store that was cut down.
Stacked the remainder of splits on hand in a light rain. With a few extra pieces it equaled just over a half cord. Rain got heavier as I was finishing up. Still have the other load to split. PMed tree guy and other trees coming down on the 15th.
One of my all time favorites both for heating fuel & woodworking material. Honey Locust tool chest built April 1994,some local air dried rough sawn stock found in a barn loft for pennies a board foot summer 1986. My tree service contact brings me random length large HL logs (thornless older trees being removed because of storm damage,or disease every 2-3 years) all of the smaller logs from 6 to 14" diameter are firewood the bigger nicer ones from 20" to 3 feet plus I mill into various slabs,bowl blanks,other material. Some times he even calls me before placing the ad on Craigslist,knowing that I will take the bigger unruly chunks no one else wants.In my inventory I have over a dozen now dry slabs 2.5" to 3.5" thick,17" to 34" wide up to 4 feet long.Plus a little 1" lumber 6 feet long left from years ago. Great stuff,tests your patience as well as your equipment.Quite dense,pretty close to Shagbark Hickory but less than Osage Orange/Hedge.But its well worth the effort put into it whether you're splitting the logs for future firewood or milling them for future projects.Slow drying no matter what,its best to wait 3 years before burning it for best results.
Beautiful piece of work there. Kinda rare as a score for me as its pretty much a landscape tree. I cant say I've ever seen one "in the wild". My understanding is the wood is rather rot resistant too. Wonder how it weathers left unprotected?
Gosh thats nice. I have seen a few pieces made out of it over the years and it all looked like that. Nature made it have all those thorns to protect or it would all be gone.
Thorns and PI aside, why on earth would you turn down Oak and hoard Honey Locust? I have a stack of HL on pallets, that I put there in 2019 and it still barely burns in a forced air owb. I tried burning some the last 2 years and quickly realized it needs more time. 5 years now of being stacked, and it could still use a little more time to dry. Tbf I like bigger chunks. The good news is the powder post beetles don't bother it after processing, plus it doesn't rot. Awesome burl btw.
Good point about the oak. HL is a rare score for me, so its more of a novelty. Plus I've never cut one with thorns either. Ill try to get a good premium when I sell this 2-3 years from now.
Mmmm! Tasty! says these little bugs. I usually have to deal with some frass on honey locust. I hope they don't find your stack.
Its funny as you're not the only one who has mentioned how bad the frass could be. I sold a cord of three years dried HL a couple years ago and there was very little if any frass on it. Surprisingly I don't get much in my other stacks either. Only problem i had with it was some pin oak nearly two years dried. It was mixed in with my bundle wood inventory. Every split with bark I encountered had the powder coming out of it so bad I didn't use it in the bundles and sold it separately. Even loosened the bark on some. The wood was stacked in an open faced shed too.
I thought I got away putting some up a couple years ago. They got it after stacking and covering because it was too cold when I put it up for them to be active. I had some about 5 years ago that was pretty bad. It was like it had been infested twice. Last bunch I ran through just needed a clank to shake off what was there. I've had my eye on two of them by my lower yard. Been too lazy to move stuff out of the falling path so far.
