So I have stumbled upon a massive score of honey locust. These things are very intimidating with the hoard of thorns covering these things. My question is this. Would it be worth it to tackle this score or leave it be and let the landowner burn it??? Have a huge amount of Oak, Ash and Pecan wood that I will be taking off of the 180 acres but the landowner would like the locust taken as well. Ive never messed with this stuff... IS IT WORTH IT???
By the BTU scale Honey Locust burns at 23.7 and Black Locust burns at 23.2 so seems to be a good firewood.... Still leery of those dang 4 inch thorns.
With 180 acres I assume you are using some substantial machinery. Could a fellebuncher knock the thorns off like it does branches? If so, thats what I'd do. Even if it meant hiring a guy with a fellebuncher or renting one. Hopefully the thorns wont pop the hydraulic hoses.
Take it! The thorns scrap off quite easily. And if you mill, it makes some wonderful boards that are both durable and beautiful.
Take all you can get, it may dry in 2 years down in your neighborhood but it takes 3 years to dry up here. Run your bar down the log & use the top side to take off the thorns. It will throw the thorns away from you. You may come across some without without thorns & that’s the easy pickins. It burns hot & generates good coals.
I know I would go after it. Watch out for rubber tires tho. I hear they’ll pop em just looking at em.
It's better than that... It's better than oak for BTU's and it dries quicker, about half the amount of time. Thorns, if they have them do complicate things, but it's great firewood. I'm lucky that all the honey locust here is the thornless variety.
The only honey locust ive ever encountered around here are hybrid yard trees with no thorns. The wood is some seriously dense stuff. I saw one with the thorns and ill agree it is some intimidating looking stuff. My research shows the btu chart on here is wrong for black and honey locust. With that much land to work i would pass on it IMO. Calling MAF143 he has experience with thorned HL. Maybe he can chime in
100% worth it. Put on some thick elbow length gloves and fight through the thorns. It takes 2 years to season even split small, but it will last forever stacked outside uncovered. Burns as good as well seasoned white oak. Close to hickory in heat, but better than hickory in my opinion since it splits easily and never rots. Also, has a wonderful fruity-rose like smell. Just do it.
I've cut my fair share of HL, but in my experience it takes 3+ years to season it. Plus those thorns will poke right thru leather gloves with ease. The thorns also have an enzyme on them that gives you and infection. Also the powder post beetles LOVE HL. I would recommend getting the oak and other hard woods first. Then get the HL.
Just be careful, because it’s worth it for the farwood! I agree with others, it would make sense to just hire it out if the 180 acres are getting cleared. You might need help with processing into farwood as well.
I am trying to remove the honey locusts from our place. The best way for me to handle them is to girdle them & treat with tordon. I then come back in 2-3 years And drop them- a lot of the thorns fall off on impact. I doubt that will help in your situation, but using the top side of the bar to remove thorns works great.
Boy, we have had very different experiences with HL apparently...I cut 3 thornless tree some years back...had it CSS for 4+ years when I went to move it, some of the wood that had a bunch of wet frass on it from those dang powder post beetles was rotten/junk. I have not been overly impressed with it overall...it is heavy and dense, but seems to need more air than most woods to burn properly, therefore it does not last nearly as long as Hickory for example. I'll take Hickory 10 out of 10 times over HL...especially if the HL has thorns. I agree with Wouldsplitter , get the other premium woods first, then the HL if you still have a hankering for it...
I cut a lot of it. It's worth the effort, and as mentioned by others above, there are simple strategies to deal with the thorns. It's great lumber if you get nice straight trunks. It's great firewood too. Here's some of the things I've learned, but I'm sure some of you guys have some tips I could learn from (I'm kinda slow at picking up on things at times). 1. Good boots. They do make steel insoles for shoes also, but they aren't quite as comfy as a good pair of logging boots. I've run thorns through regular shoes, thank goodness they went between my toes both times. I was very lucky on those. Boots ONLY for me. 2. Good gloves. They make some for working with barbed wire fence that I got at Rural King. No glove is foolproof with these badazz thorns. 3. Slow and careful. No quick grabs cuz you'll never see the thorn that gets you. 4. I try to plan the area I'm cutting and try to keep a path through the area for the tractor that I won't drop any trunks across to keep thorns away from that path. 5. If you're gonna clean the brush up into piles, I pick a central spot for a group of trees and try to drop them so the tops land on the pile or close to the pile. The less handling the better. 6. As JimBear mentioned above, as you're limbing, run the bar flat on the trunk and knock the thorns off with blips of the throttle. Careful not to hit the tip of the bar and get kickbacks. It goes quick and use the top of the bar like he said to throw the thorns away from you. Using the bottom of the bar is no fun... 7. I've found that many of the HL trees only have thorns on the lower part of the tree. Not all are like that, but many are, so that lowers the thorn count a lot. I don't know why and I don't care, but it is nice when you get branches on the upper part of the tree that are thorn-free. 8. I skid the logs out of the area after de-thorning them so I'm spending less time driving or walking around where the thorns have been thrown. I keep spare inner tubes for the front tires of Fergy... It's inevitable... LOL It's like anything else, you get used to whatever you are dealing with. And as Ralphie Boy mentioned, milled HL boards are pretty nice, quartersawn grain is really awesome with rays similar but different to Oak. I'm still planning on doing our back deck with HL. I've found that in Ohio, since I kinda like large overnight splits, that I count on 3 years drying time but I have burned it after 2. I prefer 3... 1 year of drying, NO WAY, at least not here. We do get some of the Hickory boring beetles (they look almost the same as the Locust Boring Beetle, but those ONLY attack Black Locust) in it as it dries sometimes but they are usually out of there after the first summer of drying. They leave a powdery mess. A leaf blower helps to clear it away from the stacks instead of re-stacking it to keep the air flow wide open.
I forgot this one. If I'm not worried about actually clearing the area, I double girdle the HL trees about 6 inches apart with the chainsaw to kill them. I just leave them stand for 2-3 years and then come back to drop them and process them into firewood. This eliminates the boring beetle powder mess and has them somewhat seasoned prior to cutting. It still takes some drying time but that's what a moisture meter is for. This spring I was clearing a lot of them for the walnut planting area so they just got cut and taken out of that area. Most areas of the woods where I want to do crop tree release, I girdle them. Most loggers in our area won't pay squat for HL and there is little commercial value in harvesting for lumber other than me cutting it for my use on my sawmill. In areas of the woods with Walnut and Oak, I'll gladly kill off the HL and other cull trees to let the crop trees get more sun and nutrients. I must have been posting all this stuff and missed the post by @chainsawsoldier . As he mentioned, it may not work for you in this instance if they are wanting it cleared soon, but if time allows, it is a good way to go.
