The weather was just too beautiful today, so I decided to go harvest a standing dead conifer (it was dead so I have no idea the species) that was right next to my skidding path. I figure it was an easy target. So this is the log I got. Tractor earning its keep right here. But you said this was a "locust" score. Wait for it, it's coming... So, right next to the pine was scrapy little 7-8" dbh tree, half tipped over and barely alive. So I took that one down too. Lo and behold, here's the few leaves that were left. So this turned out to be a black locust. Then I started looking around and noticed several dead and down logs, about 3-6" diameter. SCORE, a bunch of black locust. Tractor and 3 pt skidder attachment really earned its keep hauling that stuff out. Here'e the final score. Oh, but that's not all... After all this, I realized that a month or so ago, I had dragged a downed tree out of the same area. At the time, I thought it was sassafras due to the dark brown/green heartwood and we have plenty of that here. Guess what, "after further review" that was black locust too. Here it is, C/S/S. This is all really fun for me because we have almost no locust on our property.
That dead bark free locust is about as good as it gets! A full summer split and stacked will get it real close, if it isn't already! Way gooder!
Or, maybe you do! I found some that was half buried along my east property line. Best I can figure, is it got pushed there when town excavated a ditch between the property lines about 15 years before I bought the place. The bark was gone but the wood was still rock solid. That's the great thing about locust - takes 100 years for it to rot. I found a lot of stuff just like that the past couple years and a lot of it was ready to go. Nice haul!
Locust is crazy stuff. I have a little over a cord from the farm I've been cleaning up tops at. The old man took me to an old cow Pasture that he piled about 10-15, 5-10" straight locust trees for fence post back in 1975, needless to say they never became fence posts. They were obviously all barkless, but absolutely no rot whatsoever. The majority of it read between 13-18% mc the bigger rounds read in the low 20s. The very posts that hold my house up in my basement are locust and show zero signs of decay, and my house is over 100 yo.
Cut those BL sticks in 10ft lengths and put 'em on Craigslist. Youll likely get some coin for them if you're near farm country. More coin than farwood anyway. I cut all my BL less than 10" dbh to length and bring em home but the farwood hoarder in me kicks in and I get bored and end c/s/s them.
That's just what I was thinking craigslist list around me, people have want to buy ads for pole locust. In the farmland around me locust fence posts are everywhere. Easily 100 years old. It's impressive stuff.
