ID?

I have not worked up any honey Locust that I know of - but have this tree growing up on the ridge at the back of my lot, and the thorns have me thinking honey Locust. It's surrounded by a mix of poplar, cherry, beech, maple, and a red oak.

I have considered "north American barbed wire tree" but couldn't find that listed on the interwebs.

 

The thorns and bark do look like honey locust thorns but are not nearly as dense as the honey locust thorns on my place are. I know there are almost thorn-free honey locust so maybe that is what you have.

 

This looks like a pretty young tree to my eye. Do they get more dense as the tree ages?

 

This is more like what I think of as honey locust.

 

How do you go about handling this for firewood???

 

So far I am still trying to figure that out. Meanwhile my honey locust just keeps growing bigger.

 

I'm saying honey locust. I've seen them loaded with thorns, thornless, & everything between. There seems to be no reason as to how many they have. Some are just more mad at the world than others.

Here's a relative of your barbed wire variety. The ball at the bottom is loaded with woven wire.

 

Just run the top of the bar down the log. Wear chaps & stuff.

 

OK, so it is chaps for the thorns and run the saw in pushing mode along the trunk before felling to give me a spot to cut. Sounds like it ought to work. I will need to try that one of these days but for now I have over 1000 young ash I need to remove from my first woodlot planting that are now 6 to 10 inches dbh. The ones in this place:

 

Thinning or beatle kill?

 

I want to harvest before the EAB gets them all. I have a nice load of firewood from a 30 inch dbh ash I had removed at my home about 5 years ago and I examined the rounds I was splitting. They showed heavy EAB damage although the tree was looking healthy when it was cut.

 

Can't like that. Stupid bug.

 

C'mon brother, don't be so hard on yourself!

 

We had one like that I had to mow around.
I pushed it over with a skid loader and shoved it over the property line to the neighbors.
It got me one too many times!

That was one ugly tree!!

 

Gah dang, so would someone love to hug this tree for a million dollars????

 

Honey locust. It's super good firewood. Burns hot hot hot. I use a hatchet or small forest axe to push or scrape the thorns off as high as I can. Then fall it and do the same to the rest. They are usually only on the trunk. I rake them up and put a match to the thorns,. They burn instantly and need no accelerant or tinder.

 

Crime in italy! You better be wearing steel soled boots it looks like if you're looking to finish that sucker! Wow. Ive seen Blackberry bushes higher than this tree and they were tame in comparison.