Nice chunk of Locust - is it Honey or Black?

[doggonemess]

Hi everybody, got a quick question. I found a chunk of Locust at work today, along with some other wood that was cast off from trimming earlier. Does this look like Black Locust or Honey Locust? Is it possible to tell from just the bark?



The thorns go around the trunk in a helical fashion, and get smaller near the top of the log.



Any idea what that other log might be? I found it nearby and suspect it's Redbud, but I'm not really sure. I need to take some better pictures of it, so it's not a serious question anyway.

[Danzn Bar]

My quess is honey ...............redbud has sort of a heat shaped leaf and the younger redbud bark does look so what like the top log.
DB

[randman]

I'd guess Honey also. Black Locust doesn't have thorns on the bark when it's old enough to be that gnarly. Thorns are usually only on the young growth with Black.

[DarkSoul]

Doesn't look like either black locust or honey locust to me....but that could be just me! Who told you it was 'locust' in the first place?

The end grain is soooooooooo much easier for identification purposes...

[SLIMBOB]

I thought the same thing DarkSoul.  Honey Locust has big knarly thorns on the trunk, not those little ones.  Black Locust has no thorns on the trunk (I'm pretty sure).  The bark doesn't look like Honey Locust either.  Looks to big for Prickly Ash.

[Josh B]

The smoother barked log resembles pignut hickory.  The other one doesn't look like black or honey locusts to me.  Hard to tell from pics though.  Josh

[TRACY]

Not sure it's locust. Bark is too thick for honey and not all honey locust have thorns around the bole. Location? Leave? These would help.

Tracy

[Eric Krewson]

Honey locust is really easy to indentify, never seen one without thorns.



Black locust doesn't have thorns on the bark.

[blackhawk]

The one with the thorns on the bark might be devils walkingstick. Usually the bark isnt quite that rough and furrowed,but sometimes they are on an older tree down low. How big is it? You need to post some end grain,and leaf pics.

[doggonemess]

Doesn't look like either black locust or honey locust to me....but that could be just me! Who told you it was 'locust' in the first place?

That would be me, exercising my foot-in-mouth know-it-all skills with which I am frequently wrong and overlook small details. 

I can see that you are all right - it does not resemble any type of locust. I even looked at some Locust trees we have on campus and it's not even remotely similar. The closest thing I've found to it is Aralia spinosa, or "Devil's Walkingstick".



It was a pain (no pun intended) to pick up and get in the trunk. It ripped the bag of dog food you see in the picture, too. Dog didn't care, of course, since I left a nice trail for her to clean up when I brought it in.

Nearby, there were smaller diameter sections of it, which do look like the images I've seen online. I've just never seen a picture of one this thick. Weird wood. I wonder what its properties are?

I'll take some end grain pictures of both logs so I can provide more info for this. Thanks very much for all your suggestions and observations!

[doggonemess]

The one with the thorns on the bark might be devils walkingstick. Usually the bark isnt quite that rough and furrowed,but sometimes they are on an older tree down low. How big is it? You need to post some end grain,and leaf pics.

That's funny, I hit preview and the site told me that there was a reply to my post that I should review before posting. You must have typed it while I was composing my images. I think you're probably right about the devils walkingstick, it sure looks like it. How big do they get? What kind of shape do they have? I thought they were just small shrubs.

[doggonemess]

Oh, and I don't have any leaves for either - these were cut already, laying on the ground. I went back today to get another sample, and the groundskeepers were there, mulching what was left. Shame.

[blackhawk]

Id burn it if i were you and dont waste your time with it...its a really low density wood(mid. 40s sg) and very porous to the point its pores are big air pockets in the wood. Hickorybill and i played with some one time,and it was no good. Trust me. No good man. Maybe unless you made it 4" wide it might hold,but it was very unelastic as well,which is another important quality in bow wood.

They grow up big enough to be small tree size.

[TRACY]

Honey locust is really easy to indentify, never seen one without thorns.



Black locust doesn't have thorns on the bark.

Great pic! Eric, in Indiana it's  not unusual to find mature honey locust growing very close to each other where one is thorns to the hilt and the other is thorn free. I guess genetic trait.

[doggonemess]

Id burn it if i were you and dont waste your time with it...its a really low density wood(mid. 40s sg) and very porous to the point its pores are big air pockets in the wood. Hickorybill and i played with some one time,and it was no good. Trust me. No good man. Maybe unless you made it 4" wide it might hold,but it was very unelastic as well,which is another important quality in bow wood.

Thanks for the info, I appreciate the advice. I wasn't sure about it, but I may 'practice' on it, knowing that it's not good for bowmaking. I just got a bandsaw and I'll need to do a few logs to get the feel for it. Maybe this can be my first victim...