I have a ton of black locust wood from a large tree that I cut down in May. I was letting it dry to split and recently tried to do so. My splitting maul bounced off the logs like they were petrified. I'm pretty sure that it isn't me as I had no trouble splitting some Ash that was cut down at the same time. After doing some reading I found out that apparently I should have split the Locust logs while they were still green. Who would have thought that the wood should have been split while it was green? I'm not looking forward to going back and cutting all of the logs into smaller sections since the wood is extremely hard and I wore out (broke several cutters) on two chains cutting down the tree to begin with. I'm tempted to just waste all of the wood but that is against my nature. So, learn from my mistake and if you ever cut down a Black Locust tree split the wood before it dries.
I was always told that if you let it grow larger than a fence post, it was wasted anyway. Too tough to fool with.
you will find that ash is one of the easiest tree's to split locust also splits well unless they are knotted up when they are freshly cut ever hit one and the ax/maul darn near come back and whack you in the head
I split 3 truck loads of it the summer before last. I think they tree had been down for about 4 or 5 months, and cut up for a month or two. I didn't have any problems splitting it, but then again I have lots of built up anger. I tried to split up some old elm that my mother had, THAT sucked. That wood is real stringy and even after it splits you have to pull it apart.
I cut some locust once that was so big some lengths split into seven nice sized posts. It was straight grained and split nicely. I did split it green.
Locusts get harder after they cure out,when using them for fence posts it was always easier to nail them green,they will dull a chainsaw blade faster than some hardwoods,but make really good hot burning firewood.They last a longtime in the ground,I built a chicken coop one time using two huge black locusts as the foundation laying flat like a sled,I don't remember exactly how many years it had been,but tore it down in like 1989 and those logs underneath had very little decay to them.
Elm doesn't make a very good firewood,it's hard to split,they used to make corks out of one type elm,slippery elm bark is used for sore throat medicine,big theft problem in the National Forest recently of folks girdling whole trees for it = http://www.kyagr.com/pr/newscenter/slipperyelmbark.htm
Some slippery elm trees on my property got hit a few years back...Bark theives ....They wont work but they will climb to the top of a very tall and steep ridge to steal bark to sell...
Amazing ain't it.I think the same thing about all the trouble some sorry thieves go through when it would be easier to work.
