Did a little black locust sawing, pictures

[Dana]

The weather was above freezing today, so I fired up the mill.  I made 3" thick live slabs out of the log. Anyone care to guess what species of hardwood this is? Sorry the picture is so blurry.

[sigidi]

Dana over here it looks a bit like ironbark - dunno if you guys have 'em over there?

[jimparamedic]

looks like locust. If it is make some nice wood. good for high wear areas

[islandlogger]

I agree with the above, Honey Locust...???

Islandlogger

[Dana]

It is black locust, and isn't native to our area.  This one came out of someones yard in town.

[sigidi]

Isn't timber strange? from the look of that and my experience here in Oz the grain looks heaps like a slash pine - although you guys said Locust is hard right? are all locust hard?

[Dana]

Sigidi, The wood is very hard and has some wild grain that alternates between very tight to relatively far apart...all in the same log/board.
Sawing one of the slabs I could actually hear a popping noise as I cut and feel a slight movement in the log. I believe that was the stress being relieved from the log. Some info I Googled said that they used Black locust for ships mast in days past. Also that a cord of locust is equal in B.T.U.'s to a ton of coal.

[sigidi]

Wow, so even though the grain looks to be fairly wide in places (I'd assume that would mean less dense than a tight grained timber) it must be pretty dense to have that much stored energy in it!!

[Dan_Shade]

I'll vouch for it being hard.

the most miserably hard woods in the US that I've encountered are black locust, pecan, hickory, and white oak

[Dana]

I wonder how it will plane after it is dry? Lots of tear out? I am thinking of making a coffee table and maybe a bench from a couple of the slabs.

[Dave Shepard]

I've hand planed it, and it planes fairly well, but not smooth. Is it ring porous? It seems like you are left with little voids, almost like there are little tubes being opened up. It's harder than any of the white oak I've sawn. When I first started working where I do know, I had to resaw a 12x12 beam that had been sitting on the gravel for something like 12 years. The mill cut it well, but it took all 51 horsepower. :D

[WDH]

Yes, ring porous and the pores are filled with tyloses like white oak.

[Magicman]

the most miserably hard woods in the US that I've encountered are black locust, pecan, hickory, and white oak

Gotta add Beech to that list, as I found out last Friday.

[AndyC]

Locust in Ohio is mostly used for fence posts cause its so hard.  Those beech MagicMan mentioned are terrible here because they rot out really quick - coons love em.  I have 5 to take down before the ground thaws and am dreading it - because they are dangerous and about 20 feet from my shed.  I'll send some pictures before and after but one of them I can see clean through it's so rotten.  I may just pull that one down with the truck and fell the rest that are solid. 

[Ron Wenrich]

Frozen beech has always given me the most problems.  Locust isn't so bad.  I cut them into 4x4 for fence posts.  I put my vertical edger at 4" and cut 2 or 3 posts on a pass, depending on the size of log.

[Dana]

MM I haven't sawn any beech yet. I have one that blew down and is only reachable by snowmobile. I'm going to square it up on the mill for an anvil base. I thought it would cut like butter, thanks for the heads up.

Winter returned here with high winds and cold temps. Next week is going to warm into the mid to high twenties. Maybe I will get the log then.

[sigidi]

Man that is weird - mid twenties!!!

Yesterday under our front verandah (in the shade) it was 38 deg c or just a tad over 100F!!!

[Magicman]

Dana, I'd saw it up.  It's hard, but certainly not unsawable.  The lumber resembled cherry....really nice.

If you make an anvil stand, you'll have to protect it from rot if it's going to be in contact with the ground.