If you were closer I'd come take it down for you. The thorns scrape off easily but do use caution. If you get stuck the tips stay in the wound and get infected. I scrape off the thorns in the cutting area then drop the tree and scrape the rest as I buck it. Hot burning wood.
Unless you have a wood shortage on your place, drop it and post it on Craigslist. Drag it to the street with a tractor or truck and put a free sign on it. Someone who is cold will deal with it. It's good stuff but not worth the hassles in my book.
Absolutely be careful. Those thorns are like the spawn of satan. When the pierce the skin it will hurt for quite some time.
Be careful if "skinning" them thorns off with a saw,,could be lots of hi velocity-flying thorns !! I have done the "scorched tree" technique, it makes a mess of things with soot and what not once it's cooled down..but eliminates the thorny issue.. Girdling or ringing the trunk down low will kill the tree and cause most of the bark and thorns fall off if you have a couple years to let it work. I currently have 20 or more I'm girdled last year, they will be much easier to work with next year.
That thing has all it's defenses up and is not open to negotiations. The nuclear option is justified.
And greendohn brings up a great point....when "skinning" those thorns and then clusters, use the TOP of your bar so the clusters shoot "away" from you. I used the bottom of my bar and that's how I impaled my leg....... Also like I said earlier be sure to wear steel shank boots and use caution when walking on/around the thorns.
Yep. I've stepped on a few nails in the past and it's no fun to have sharp objects going through your boots into your foot
I worked up quite a few in years past. Like you, not my first choice but sometimes you just have to do it. Just go in with the mindset of once it is done I won't ever have to deal with the problems anymore, tires or worrying about stepping on one. Here are my tips of what works best for me. Drop the tree then I use a long handled axe to take the big thorns off. Then use a close tined pitchfork to gather them up into a pile to burn or put into a trailer. Pick up the small ones and put them in a 5 gallon bucket as you make your way up the tree. Good heavy gloves are a must and take your time. It goes pretty fast once you get the routine. wood is great to burn as others have said. You'll get there Yeah, the thorns do get a bit bigger than pictured earlier!
Man those things are not screwing around. Black locusts around here (ship mast variety) get thorns but mostly on new growth and much smaller. Thorns eventually fall off or are overgrown by bark. Anything bigger than about 1" is ok to handle w/o gloves.
Is it that thorny because it growing out in the open? I don't remember seeing one in the open. Probably get cleared out because of the problems with flats, etc.
I don't think it matters as I have seen them both ways. Sometimes a tree just gets an attitude like with swirl or curly grain. I would assume one near a creek or a good food supply would grow nastier faster. The on I pictured is in a fencerow so it's using up fertilizer that is spread every year, water out of the ditch helps it too.
I had these two 6 inch honey locust growing out behind my house near my barn. They were about 6 feet apart. one had multi-thorns the other had none They are both in my stacks now and the stumps poisoned. I used a machete to remove the thorns.
Ditto on about everything said, I have dealt with so freakin many its a wonder I still want to cut firewood! They do make great firewood though, lots of heat, copper and purple flames are pretty to look at. It also splits easy. I have split some where those thorns are grown up through the middle of the wood. It's wild to split an otherwise clean piece and find those! I've buried a thorn in the top of my calf and felt it hit the bone, I couldn't get it out with my fingers and had to get pliers. Same deal as Scotty, really sore for over a month. A buddy of mine caught a branch dropped on his head and the thorn tip embedded in. He fought that infection about three weeks. I've found the best way to deal with them if you have the time is to girdle them like previously mentioned and then dope them with Pathway. After about a year the thorns will drop. Caution though, they are still there on the ground! If you don't want to wait I skin them with a long machete which works great, quick and easy and then rake them up. A pitchfork works great for moving the limbs around. In researching them I came across an article that said some of the Mormons point to these trees as a form of proof of their doctrine. It said that it proves wooly mammoths once roamed the U.S. and the trees developed the thorns as a means of protection against the mammoth's grazing. I certainly think those thorns would be one of the few things that would keep a wooly mammoth moving on for other food!
