My other interests include good literature, Orthodox theology, and food among other things. The black locust (Robinia sp.) First, you can see from the log above, that the sides are a bit “wavy”. Alright, now that we’ve covered identification, let’s take a quick look at seasoning for Black Locust.For wood to be “seasoned” basically just means that it’s thoroughly dried. Watch Queue Queue. The black locust reaches a height of about 25 to 30 meters with a diameter of one meter. I don’t ever advise meeting one of these out in the few woods surrounding the bluegrass region, they are quite painful to run into, and the thorns can grow to be three to seven pronged and eight inches long! Then the color of the heartwood of honey locust varies from orange to peach to pink, or even a blend of all those colors. Wholesome Gear, LLC may also participate in affiliate programs with other sites. There are a ton of different types of firewood, and in this post, we’re digging into the details on Black Locust. If you find thorns, that dramatically narrows your options, and there’s a solid chance that you’re looking at Black Locust.The next thing you can look at for live trees, or for logs where they’re still attached, is the leaves.Leaves are among the most common methods for identifying any type of tree. Honey Locust has large branching thorns, whereas Black Locust has individual spines, typically at the base of leaves. The black locust’s bark is dark in colour with grooves that resemble an intertwining rope. Next, let’s touch briefly on identifying Black Locust firewood, so you can be sure you know what type of wood you’re dealing with.Black Locust can be somewhat difficult to identify when the wood is dried, or if you don’t have any leaves to go by. If you’re not familiar with those, extension offices are typically associated with a university, and their role is to do research and provide services which help citizens better manage their land and natural resources. Black Locust throws a medium amount of sparks.
The black locust tree’s botanical name is Robinia pseudoacacia and the honey locust tree’s is Gleditsia triacanthos. There are about 12 species  of honey locust.The black locust tree is fast growing and larger than the honey locust. This will allow both stacks of wood to dry better.If your wood pile is outside you can put a cover or tarp over the stack to drain any rain/snow. Below, you’ll find a chart that summarizes the BTU output and weight of 15 common firewood species’ (Note: data sources are mentioned beneath the infographic above). Black Locust is also denser and produces more heat when used as firewood. When it comes to deciding between black locust or honey locust, the first thing you probably want to consider is the hardness of each type of lumber.
Fine stuff, has the same problem as BL, where it is quite stiff and compression strong, but not as compression ELASTIC as it would seem. Some types of firewood pop or spark quite powerfully.
Honey locust flowers on the other hand, are ambrosia. The pictures are no exaggeration, they belong to the cruelest of plants in the world along with their cousins the Acacias! As a result, it’s important to monitor any type of open-air fire, and also to know the qualities of the firewood you are burning.In general, higher-quality firewood will throw fewer sparks, but this is one area where Black Locust isn’t the top performer. Black locust flowers are sweetly fragrant of orange blossom honey, and the scent carries best in warm humid weather on a south breeze.
However, Mulberry, which is an otherwise top-level firewood, does produce a moderate amount of smoke.It’s also worth mentioning, that almost any wood will be VERY smokey if you burn it wet. The honey locust, on the other hand, can grow pods to as long as 10-12 inches.The pulp of the honey locust fruit is edible while the fruits of the black locust is known to be toxic. It smells fine, it definitely doesn’t smell bad like Buckeye does, but the aroma of Black Locust is just very mild. First, honey locust tends to have a wide band of white sapwood, maybe 2-3 inches, whereas black locust has a much narrower band of sapwood- 1/2 to 1 inch at the most. Now, here it is!In the following section, we’re going to see how Black Locust measures up against the 6 most important burn qualities for firewood. Watch Queue Queue Both can have thorns, although Honey locust thorns tend to be in groups of 3 whereas black are in groups of 2 (directly opposite one another on branch). This is an important characteristic for firewood, but it’s not the only thing that you need to consider. At least among wild plants and trees, they seem to get a late start in the foliage department, even if their flower displays are followed close behind leaf out and over with in a week or two. For example, stack the wood away from buildings (out of the shade), and point the face of the stack (not the ends) towards the direction from which you get the most breeze.if you make multiple stacks of firewood, each stack should be separated by at least a few inches for air flow. T he black locust tree, Robinia pseudoacacia, is famous for producing a fruity and fragrant honey that ranges from water white to lemon yellow to yellowish green.A batch of monofloral black locust honey with little cross-contamination from other flowers can be as clear as a glass jar. Great post, never knew locusts were good for woodworking and firewood.Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: The honey locust’s bark is brown or grey in colour and the tree has  bunches of thorns.Both the black and honey locust have smooth, thin, shiny seedpods.