Black Locust

[Phil St.Germain]

I will be getting a fresh cut Black Locust log delivered to me in the next couple of weeks and need to turn a bunch of bowls and platters out of it for a customer. My question is, how is BL to dry? Do most of you turn it to 10% and DNA soak? Or do you turn to finished thickness and let it move? Does BL move or crack alot? Some of the platters will be laser engraved and be display pieces as the tree is coming from a historic location.

Thanks,

Phil

[Terry Quiram]

Phil

I never had any out of the ordianry problems drying Black Locust. I alcohol soak and bag all my rough stock. I turn 10% or a little less wall thickness. You will have the most difficulty when you finish turn. BL is a very hard wood. If you don't like sanding then repeat sharpeing and or honing tools is a must.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I haven't had any problems turning black locust either. I DNA soak and wrap to dry. Like Terry said when dry it is a extremely hard wood so sharp/honed tools are a must. It is almost like turning concrete but makes a beautiful bowl. Don't get in a hurry. I wore a weight lifting glove to keep the hot chips off my hands.

[Nathan Hawkes]

As has already been mentioned, black locust is hard, and dense. I also find it to be very brittle when dry. I'm a bit jealous; I haven't been able to turn more than a single piece green which I blew up trying to get it thin. I have a few tool handles from air dried wood (well below 10% MC)that I milled a few years ago, and found it quite prone to chipping when I was roughing the blanks. If its green, it turns nicely. One thing I should mention; it did warp check more than I thought it would when air drying my boards--properly weighted down & stacked with "stickers" (spacers between boards). I'd be very careful about using CA glue in any checks you find.
Also; like others have said, it DESTROYS tools when dry. Even 2060 gouges dulled very quickly, and I don't even want to talk about my planer knives!!