Locust Questions

[Radek Kowalski]

I have 3 big logs of locust that I got over 6 months ago. They have been cut and sitting and waiting. I cut one into 3 blanks last week and it has been drying a bit since. DAM this wood is hard.

I was wondering, would it be wise to let it dry like this for a couple more months or should I just turn it now and let it dry like that. I am not sure how stable the wood is which is why I am asking.

Second question, I am not sure which Locust I have. How do I tell the difference between honey locust and black locust.

Thanks for your time.

Radek

[Nathan Hawkes]

If it had HUGE thorns on it when it was alive, it is a honey locust. Generally the bark is quite a bit smoother than the deeply furrowed black locust bark, and the wood is much more creamy brown than the yellowish tan or greenish tan that black locust exhibits. Black locust has thorns, but they're NOTHING like honey locust. I keep some on my desk as a knick-knack thing that is about 12" long and branched.

[Dan Forman]

Here is some black locust-

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/P1020299.jpg

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/P1020297.jpg

I wouldn't want to turn a bowl from dry locust - as you say, it's hard, even harder when fully dry. It is subject to cracking, but if you take the usual precautions you should be ok. I had a bowl that had a number of cracks as it was drying, but they must have been superficial, because by the time it was re-turned, I couldn't find any.

Dan

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Radek Honey-Locust is redder and smoother barked than Black Locust
We have quite a lot of Honey-Locust growing around here, and they have mostly no thorns at all, some do have the big forked thorns.
I just picked up a 13" Honey-Locust crotch three weeks ago and made a couple of pictures of the crotch and just now one of the rough turned bowl, it should help ID the wood you have between Dan's picture and mine :D

[curtis rosche]

i am turning some right now, and have been for the past couple months. i love turning it, but my tools hate me for it. turn it as green as you can. it is pretty stable, unless you include the pith. even then, i only had very little cracking. i tried to turn a totally dry peice, and i couldnt, it just kept catching and made only dust

[Bernie Weishapl]

As was said locust is a pretty wood to turn but when dry it is like mounting concrete on your lathe. Extremely sharp tools are in order. I just turn a couple of bowls and had to sharpen every few pass I made. Turning it green is best and even then it is hard.

[curtis rosche]

i find that with my thompson gouge i can do the whole 9 inch bowl with out sharpening. but that doesnt include making the blank round

[Terry Quiram]

If you are a child of the 60s then you may have a black light stashed away. Or you can go to a pet store and get a small black light used to detect cat urine. Black Locust will glow under black light, Honey Locust will not.

[John Shuk]

Turn a couple of spindles and burn the rest. Great firewood. Great for turning if you like to sharpen All of the time

[Richard Madison]

Would you say that it is harder than dry pecan?

[Jim Sebring]

The hunk of Black Locust firewood a bud gave me has become a couple of great handles. One of Doug's 5/8 bowl gouges is glued into one of 'em.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

No it isn't Richard, but close, though I haven't turned Pecan, I think Black Locust and Honey Locust is more abrasive, but here's a hardness scale table, could come in handy at times, :rolleyes:

Oh and I find black locust harder than Honey locust,

http://tinytimbers.com/janka.htm

[Richard Madison]

Thanks Leo. Interesting site. The Janka hardness does not correlate precisely with ease/difficulty of turning/cutting the wood on lathe, although it does give a good idea of what to expect. The process of pressing a ball into the surface is, of course, different than cutting/shearing the wood.

[Reed Gray]

There are 2 types of honey locust. The wild type with the thorns, and the domesticated hybrid some times called Moraine Locust. Both have big seed pods with seeds that look like milk duds, but the Moraine doesn't have the big thorns, and I have seen a few that were 24 inch plus diameter. The wild ones don't get that big, at least none that I have seen. Don't have many honey locust here in Oregon, but do have some of the Moraine Locust. I prefer the honey locust colors to the black locust, but both are nice.

robo hippy

[curtis rosche]

which locust is the one with the bean pods about 1-2ft long, and green. and gets really really big leaves?

[Scott Lux]

Curtis, that sounds more like a catalpa.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

There are 2 types of honey locust. The wild type with the thorns, and the domesticated hybrid some times called Moraine Locust. Both have big seed pods with seeds that look like milk duds, but the Moraine doesn't have the big thorns, and I have seen a few that were 24 inch plus diameter. The wild ones don't get that big, at least none that I have seen. Don't have many honey locust here in Oregon, but do have some of the Moraine Locust. I prefer the honey locust colors to the black locust, but both are nice.

robo hippy

Reed you should update your information on the Honey Locust, as yours is not correct.

I have enclosed a few pieces of info that you could get yourself also if interested.

The Honey locust does occur in it's native habitat (eastern and central US and extreme southern Canada, not western US) as both a thornet and un-thorned tree, with and without seed-pods as most are bisexual, but some are unisexual, where the tree than has only the flowers and not the seed-pods

As you can see the name Moraine Locust is just an other name for the same tree, Gleditsia Triacanthos