Help with wood id

[Mark Detrick]

Last year my Son In-Law brought some wood from a tree that blew down in a storm. It's been drying for a year and I'm finally getting around to use it.
The wood has a very thick bark. It has some interesting colors and grain to it. The bowl in the picture was finished with walnut oil.
Can anyone help id this wood?

[Reed Gray]

Black Locust.

robo hippy

[Richard Coers]

Yup, black locust.

[Kyle VanMeter]

+3. That looks like Black Locust to me as well.

[Mark Detrick]

Sounds like unanimous decision. Thanks everyone!
I searched this forum and found some good info on Black Locust. Sounds like it is very hard and may not be the best wood to work with. This bowl is my first experience with it. It didn't seem exceptionally hard to work with. One thing I did notice, is that although the surface was very smooth prior to sanding, there were spots that were quite wavy after sanding. I assume that was a result of some grain being harder than others?

[Fred Perreault]

Around here I have access to a lot of locust. It grows crooked, twisted, gnarly and quite large...... and then it blows over as it is shallow rooted. There can be some very interesting blanks coming from black locust... the crotches and the trunk sections are good, but if you can get any stumps and clean them up and wash them off, wow. Of course, it is only a little easier to turn than concrete. And yes, sanding usually produces a wavy surface, and even really dry locust will warp from the stress relief after turning.

[Mark Detrick]

I'm sure glad it was free! :)

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Same opinion here, Black Locust, turns quite nice when green, much harder when dry, I love the look of it when finished.

Good looking bowl you have there, well done.

As for the wavy surface after sanding, every year ring is made up of early wood and late wood, early being the wood grown in the spring and late wood in the summer/fall, late wood is the darker part of the year ring, and harder than the early wood.

Aggressive sanding will remove more softer/early wood than the harder/late wood, HTH :)

[Jamie Donaldson]

Black Locust is our second best fence post wood, behind Osage Orange! Yes its hard when dry, and be sure to turn it thin and don't overheat while sanding.