As kids we had forts all over the farm and plenty of black locust. Always plenty of dead limbs to burn. I guess the smell of burning locust grows on ya. I love it. Matter of fact sitting on the tractor under a big BL right now enjoying the shade.
Yeah it does...and if you stack HL in a spot where it can get wet and remain wet, it will rot surprisingly fast...I had some crates of it stacked where it got a bunch of leaves and pine needles down into the stack before I used it...when I moved it a couple years later I was shocked how much punk/rot there was on some pieces! I kinda assumed it was locust, so it would "last forever"...you know, locust posts and all...
It will give up the bark from normal handling once it's dry, in our admittedly limited experience. The layer of slimy crap underneath is where the stink comes from, I think. Kinda messy when green, but more like tissue paper when dry.
never scored any. Id like to try some just to see. Heard that it wreaks when the barks starts to fall off so that turns me off from it. Pic is a piece of locust i was going to grab and there was maggots under the bark. Thats how bad it smells. Sorry you missed out! Plenty of oak and other decent hardwood available here to go around.
I'm fine with honey or black locust. Give it 2 years to dry and it's great. I'd rather have shagbark hickory though. But when it gets cold out, I need something in the oak or better category. Shagbark, oak, sugar maple, beech, ironwood, or locust will all do it for me.
Shoot, there’s a lot to be said about black locust... fair share of experience with it. Probably the best time to burn it is at night and just headed to bed. If you split it, keep it large that it fills your stove up well, lasts awhile too. The downsides: it doesn’t smell too pleasant if you journey outside in the smoke trail. Lest you don’t have neighbors that mind that or any to speak of , it’s worth keeping. Seasons fast yes. I remember cutting some and it went from an interesting yellow color to golden in the sun after a day or two.
Smells interesting, I associated some when I peeled off the bark like something you smelled at a pier by the salt water and ketchup. Go figure. Oh shoot sorry Farmchuck, I just replied and didn’t see the bad news. Hopefully the next time around!
