Whats anyone’s experience with locust for firewood?

Burns long and hot. Some of the best out there.

Thorny locust is fantastic for firewood, black locust dont waste your time on, honey locust i have no clue on.

I burnt a couple of cords of locust this season, lots of BTU's compared to most other hardwoods.

I burn black/yellow locust. Burns hot and long. It can be a bit tougher to split than some other woods but worth the effort.

X2

excellent firewood would rank it with hard maple and oak

We burn black locust in our evaporator.

It burns good, but kinda has a cat pee smell to it when you split it green. Doesn’t smell bad when seasoned.

Good stuff ...

BUT, It will leave an equal volume of ash, and you'll spend a fortune sharpening chains!

I burn locust almost exclusively. Outside boiler, and most of these warmer days we have been having, I just throw three or four chunks on in almost 24 hours. Normal weather though, I stoke it twice a day. I heat a 40X100, shop, living area and fur room with it. I have been very happy with the floor heat and the way it all works.

That's a fact!

Black Locust is my favorite in Nebraska.

Thanks guys, have a couple acres of it on the new property

It makes some of the best fence posts you can put in the ground. Dries rock hard, holds staples and will still be solid decades later.

The best in order of my experience is black locust, red mulberry then cedar heartwood. No hedge aka bodock in my area.

That drying hard deal is also why it is a preferred wood for pegs for joining pegged mortise and tenon. The other wood shrinks onto the peg for a tight hold.

Yes sir warrior, weve used them for fence posts quite a bit and a few hop poles…

One of the highest Btu firewoods behind the osage orange.

Really dying off in this part of the country.

Thorny locust is a pain to cut. But the firewood is a quality heat source. We don't have Osage orange on our land.

Black locust is my all around favorite. Leaves barely more ash than red oak in my stove, splits like an absolute dream, get the heat fast when starting from cold or coals, high btu per volume. But that is my local variety of what we call black locust. Has thorns when young but they go away as it matures. About the only downside is thick bark.
I cut several cord a year, sharpen my chain about as much as with most hardwoods if it is green, standing dead is a bit worse on chains but still cut a truckload or more per sharpening.
I burned maybe 30 cord of osage during a stretch in my younger years. Higher heat per volume, but splitting was no fun. Tends to leave attached “wafers” that chew up maul handles and with a hydraulic splitter I did a lot of “string cutting” with a hatchet. Not the local black locust, splits clean and easy.
Lots of factors when deciding what is your “best l” wood, but all things considered black locust is my #1 choice. Was just reading that the pioneers planted it primarily for firewood and I believe that, although as mentioned it makes a decent post. Osage is the best post though.

Bois D Arc sparks like a sparkler

Buy a harbor freight chain sharpener. Cheap, inexpensive and easy to sharpen a chain.
And I agree locust is one of the best woods I've burned

I can not get the HF grinder to sharpen a chain.
ANY tips to my operator error appreciated.
I've only tried it on .325 chains, maybe wrong wheel?

The last locust I cut threw sparks lol.

Sparks? Try cutting hophornbean. Up here some call it hard hack.

Only have poulans chainsaws myself. I sharpen them at 25°
Mine after sharpening cut great and only take about five minutes once you figure out the depth and angle on the machine
Im anything but an expert and it works for me.
Not sure if it's the wrong size for yours. Hopefully someone else will chime in

We have that too. Can't think of the local hick name for it at this moment.
The sparky wood grew along a long dusty gravel lane, adding to the cutting pleasure.
Took forever to dry and burned great.

Dale I might need a "dresser" thing for the wheel.
I file good, the grinder I stink.

I'm glad you mentioned that. It's the first thing I thought of when I read the post title but didn't want to say anything because folks would think I'm nuts.

But yeah, I've had locust throw sparks when cutting it plenty of times.

It is one of the best green wood that you can burn. I worked most of Saturday cutting up 5 big black locust trees the high wind got Friday in my drive way going back to my barn. I am a bee keeper black locust bloom makes one of best and clearest honey you can get in my opinion.

I have thrown sparks cutting cured locust.

I had a chuck of ground was all reclaimed mine nothing but pine an locust I've cut down so many locust trees hard on chains for sure an yeah the sparks will fly

I'm still not sure which locust we're talking about. I was going to get nitpicky about it, but the reality is that heat output is more or less the same for both. Black locust is more rot resistant and harder on saw chain. Honey locust (aka thorny locust) is harder on the sawyer's skin and tires. I've only cut black locust a few times simply because honey locust is much more abundant in my area. Lots of experience with that one. Beautiful wood for projects too.

08 I thought of it. Ironwood is what that is called over here.
Regional jargon keeps things interesting.

Yes some people here also call it ironwooo. I like it but it takes 2 years to dry. Great wood in my evaporator or house..

Ironwood here is hornbeam.

Iron wood, hornbeam or muscle wood are the names I've heard it called