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Milling Locust

Started by Qweaver, April 26, 2006, 09:04:47 AM

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Qweaver

I hear all kinds of stories about the difficulity of milling locust.  I need to make 12 8x8 timbers 12' long from fresh cut locust.  Can I do this on my LT15 without going thru a box of blades?  Can I use it wet for pilings for my cabin?

Quinton
So Many Toys...So Little Time  WM LT28 , 15 trailers, Case 450 Dozer, John Deere 110 TLB, Peterson WPF 10",  AIM Grapple, Kubota 2501 :D

IL Bull

Is it black locust or honey locust? ???  Black locust is yellow and honey is pink.
Honey is the one that has the long, multi barbed thorns.  Honey locust is not as durable as black, which is used as fence post the same as osage orange. :P  Honey locust sure is pretty though.  The wood has little rosets where the thorns are. :)
Case Skid Steer,  Ford Backhoe,  Allis WD45 and Burg Manual Sawmill

raycon

Yes you can use it wet but I'd let it sit for a few weeks out of the sun.  It has a low shrink rate and as you probably already know its heavy.  You're lucky if all the logs have centered hearts as well.
Check the bark carefully or peel it off  if possible its thick and can hide some decent size debris. Try not to breath in the sawdust. In the butt logs you may seem some sparks flying black locust tends to wick up sand. Not much sapwood in Black Locust  -Honey Locust has more sapwood rings . I change my bands often in black locust. I would not be surprised if you end up dulling 6 - 8 bands. Its good looking wood.   
Lot of stuff..

Dan_Shade

i cut a bit a while back, it's hard, but not impossible.  I enjoyed it, it's bueatiful wood
Woodmizer LT40HDG25 / Stihl 066 alaskan
lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

johnjbc

I have some nice 24 inch wide planks that I cut out of Black Locust.
I cut it green and it cut nice. No sparks and didn't dull my blades as fast as Oak.
I have never cut it dry might be another story.
I have limestone ground here and locust grows very fast. Where I grew up we had shale ground and the locust grows very slow and doesn't get much bigger that 8 DBH
In both places the big black ants eat the center out. Most all of them are hollow.
LT40HDG24, Case VAC, Kubota L48, Case 580B, Cat 977H, Bobcat 773

Larry

Same experience as johnjcb.  I cut bunch of 8 X 8's last year.  Most of the time if the tree was big enough for an 8 X 8 it was hollow so it took bout twice as many trees to get enough timbers.

I'll use an 8 degree band....same as what I use on white oak.  10 degrees might chatter a little.
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

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