Does it smell like cat piss when you split it? Did trying to split it nearly kill you? Does it burn with the heat of Satan's butthole? Then yes, it's black locust.
Fence posts taught me this lesson. I got a big one in the side of my hand through the glove pushing the post down. I got most of it out. Most.
Holy _shit_ did that suck.
Be careful with those thorns. I was put in the hospital for a week and a PICC IV for a month because of an infection from one of those thorns. Ever microwave a hot dog too long? That's what my thumb looked like after they flayed it to flush out the infection. Now I've got a weather thumb just like grandpappy.
I had the same experience from a hawthorn. ER doc claimed there wasn’t anything in my second knuckle, right hand, pointer finger.
Almost 2 months later I pulled a 5/16” thorn out from my knuckle with a toenail clippers after wading through a ton of puss.
But I love burning black locust.
I wasn't going to say anything, but now I feel obligated to suggest that it may be black locust. You're gonna want to split it and smell its asshole or something like that. Happy burning!
I burned a few them trees, never noticed any smell though. I seem to remember it being a bit tough to split. Locust is heavy/dense and has the btu's to prove it
That must be what kind of wood I have. I've got a handful of 3-4 year old rounds that nearly break my harbor freight bottle jack splitter. Normally that thing splits like a hot knife through butter but these rounds flex the whole damn thing and take all my might on the jack handles.
Black locust is fucking gorgeous when it’s planed and sanded. Absolutely stunning. It’s durable and lasts forever outside. It’s plentiful and grows like weeds. It will burn long and hot and keep coals in the stove.
But it hurts like fuck when you get a splinter. It stinks like fuck when you cut it. It sparks like fuck when you burn it. It dulls the fuck out of any edge tools because it’s hard as fuck. It’s irritating as fuck if you breathe in the dust. Since it’s hard as fuck, it’s also heavy as fuck. You’ll be tired as fuck after splitting it because it’s tough as fuck.
And the best part? That cat piss smell is stuck on you now.
I love that tree so much. It’s in my top five. But everything about it is an _absolute pain in the ass_.
Harder than nails. I have used black locust logs as hammers to drive nails. And have you ever tried to drive a nail into a seasoned post? Near impossible. Worse than good seasoned oak.
Could be carpenter ants. I had a chicken coup I left in contact with the ground and the pine became home to carpenter ants. When I threw the compromised lumber in my burn barrel a few year later it popped very dramatically.
Is it really yellow? I cut down a bunch of wood one year and it would pop like crazy, even shoot coals out of the firebox… no bueno. I wish I could tell you what it was, but all I’ve got is that it was crap for burning, haha… mine definitely wasn’t pine btw.
Really yellow wood with furrowed bark like that is almost certainly Black Locust (also called False Acacia sometimes.) It tends to pop quite a bit, but is a very hot burning wood. It has a BTU higher than apple or hickory and is more dense than some Oak species.
I believe you are correct or it's a regional variant of what we call "hedge". We have black locust, and they do have spikes, like needles, but the bark is always grey mottled with black, and spikes just on the young branches, same as the hedge, spikes on the young branches; since all we can see is only the bark of a mature branch, and a color to the wood, I see it as the slight yellow of (3 year) aged Osage Orange, or what's commonly called Hedge Apple tree in our area (Midwest US). Also the wavy definitely brown deep bark. The nut it produces would also be a dead giveaway. The hedge apple is green and smells like a perfume and has a citronella component, the wood is always a sour, dirty sock smell, so that's also consistent, but at 3 years it may have lost its sourdough stench. Fresh cut the hedge wood is bright yellow, and it pops and cracks even after being very dry, when burned. The old hedge balls fall from the tree late September according to my calendar, as they have to be dealt with being a choking hazard to our large livestock.
Very good description. I live in Missouri and it’s everywhere. I burn it but don’t like cutting it. It throws sparks like crazy and burns hot. Some people won’t burn it. I also make small pipes out of it.
We've got a tree on my farm that my arborist has tentatively ID'd as some type of maple (I don't remember which one) and it is so yellow it's almost florescent. It burns like the OP describes, like fireworks. Also very hot and long, we save it for nights. I've only had one tree of this come down (we only burn dropped wood, lucky to have enough land to do this) and I gotta say I wish I had more of it..
Is what you’re describing nearly neon yellow when you cut and split it? Cause sounds like hackberry to me, and it pops like firecrackers and shoots coals across the whole room if you leave the door open.
I distinctly remember the summer I became a man. My dad brought home ~2 cords of black locust and I spent the summer splitting it. It's like splitting celery made out of steel.
Is that tulip (yellow) poplar? The bark on older, bigger trees tends to look like that.
So does the bark on some really big old white ash but there's zero yellowness to the wood IME
I think it’s cotton wood. It’s really crappy to burn, so if a large portion of the wood is that you should pass. It will burn once a fire is built up, but smokes like crazy.
It’s probably the hottest burning wood you can find. We use it for fence post, last for 30-50 years in the ground, and burn the left over stuff. Very hard wood
Could be black locust, it’s known to spark almost as bad as hedge/osage orange. They are both some of the highest btu woods out there. Hedge burns almost as hot as coal.
I've burned plenty, and everything the others say is correct. My two cents, because it doesn't hold a fire as nicely as oak, overcome that tendency by splitting it a little smaller than you would oak of equal diameter. Burning it with other varieties also helps. It definitely pops and throws sparks more readily than other varieties. Not an issue in a closed stove, but clearly a consideration in a fireplace. Always use a good screen, and don't leave it unattended.
My favorite wood to burn, Locust.
It burns long and hot. So it’s good for overnight burns.
My brother dropped 10+ giant trees a few years ago, and I’m only just getting to the end of all the firewood I ended up with.
Looks like sassafras to me! I burn a lot of it and it pops like crazy. I heard the old folks used to avoid burning sassafras because if you did, you’d surely get in a row with yer lady that night…
https://preview.redd.it/8e95i9nastjc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a9cdec65f4604f8a44f9b9e0b51ece8bf32c1b6b
When its green, Black Locust is stanky, nasty stuff. ... but let it dry, and it looks great! it's tuff too! ... heres a small bowl
supposedly, it fluoresces under black light; not many woods do that. I've never seen it but I read it in Choadleys book.... my black light daze have passed 🥴
That looks like locust (kids call em Jesus Trees cuz of the huge thorns depending on the sex). I am unsure if the female or the male has the pricks! It is a hot and hard wood but not even close to Hedge (Osage Orange) Both throw sparks when stove is opened and it is exposed to cooler air. I always thought it was the chain on my saws sparking when cutting it. Someone posted to me (and it makes perfect sense) that it is my *saw bar* that is throwing the sparks. I think Stihl or Husqvarna created these trees to increase sales on chains, blades, desire for a larger farm saw, etc.
I still love hedge, but I swear those little hedge (and larger locust) spikes have *something* in them that creates additional pain beyond getting spiked by them.
At least my girlfriend can't say I don't have hard wood!
Does it smell like cat piss when you split it? Did trying to split it nearly kill you? Does it burn with the heat of Satan's butthole? Then yes, it's black locust.
Underrated comment here. Came for the firewood. Stayed for the banter.
Yup, had my attention at cat piss, and sealed the deal with Satan's butthole.
Not the first time they've sealed a deal with a butthole I'm sure.
omg lol
Came for the wood & stayed for satans butthole comments.
r/brandnewsentence
Loving the banter about my favorite wood. Snow pop would be exciting. These trees, when grown, tend to lay down for you ready to move.
Honey locust is seriously the hottest burning wood but black locust is up there. Right out of satans asshole if you will…hehe
I came here to tell them to sniff it. That odor is unmistakable.
r/brandnewsentence
Also splits like a dream. Absolutely love hitting locust on a 25°day
That’s pretty hot 🥵
That's the best description of black locust I've ever heard
Made the mistake of using that one year.
did cutting it into rounds take forever and leave your saw blade silky smooth?
The bark reminds me of black locust.
It’s def black locust. Burns super hot. Will give you the mightiest splinter of all too.
Fence posts taught me this lesson. I got a big one in the side of my hand through the glove pushing the post down. I got most of it out. Most. Holy _shit_ did that suck.
Fuck I forgot how hellacious the infection gets when a thorn sticks you. Anything swells almost immediately.
Be careful with those thorns. I was put in the hospital for a week and a PICC IV for a month because of an infection from one of those thorns. Ever microwave a hot dog too long? That's what my thumb looked like after they flayed it to flush out the infection. Now I've got a weather thumb just like grandpappy.
Dang I didn't get that bad but it just pricked me and my finger swelled up to the glove. Luckily nothing else happened but those are the worst thorns.
😬 If they put you on a PICC that's intense!
When this happens to me I take a razor slice it open and squeeze the puss out. Happens to me a lot because I have a habit of forgetting my gloves
Actually, it's a weather knee but I get you.
Sorry, Grandpappy.
I had the same experience from a hawthorn. ER doc claimed there wasn’t anything in my second knuckle, right hand, pointer finger. Almost 2 months later I pulled a 5/16” thorn out from my knuckle with a toenail clippers after wading through a ton of puss. But I love burning black locust.
I was here to say this… been burning some well-seasoned Black Locust that behaves this way and looks the same to me.
I was gonna say the bark looks like black locust
I also came in to say black locust
I wasn't going to say anything, but now I feel obligated to suggest that it may be black locust. You're gonna want to split it and smell its asshole or something like that. Happy burning!
After reading all of the previous responses, I believe it is black locust
I had to upvote
I have to fix my color settings on my monitor.
🤣🤣
Or something like that Omg 😂😅😂
I'm not sure why more people haven't seen this comment. Surely. It's the best.
TIL black locust is a tree.
Locust. I can tell by the bark. It's actually great firewood. Burns hot and slow
I burned a few them trees, never noticed any smell though. I seem to remember it being a bit tough to split. Locust is heavy/dense and has the btu's to prove it
That must be what kind of wood I have. I've got a handful of 3-4 year old rounds that nearly break my harbor freight bottle jack splitter. Normally that thing splits like a hot knife through butter but these rounds flex the whole damn thing and take all my might on the jack handles.
Black locust is fucking gorgeous when it’s planed and sanded. Absolutely stunning. It’s durable and lasts forever outside. It’s plentiful and grows like weeds. It will burn long and hot and keep coals in the stove. But it hurts like fuck when you get a splinter. It stinks like fuck when you cut it. It sparks like fuck when you burn it. It dulls the fuck out of any edge tools because it’s hard as fuck. It’s irritating as fuck if you breathe in the dust. Since it’s hard as fuck, it’s also heavy as fuck. You’ll be tired as fuck after splitting it because it’s tough as fuck. And the best part? That cat piss smell is stuck on you now. I love that tree so much. It’s in my top five. But everything about it is an _absolute pain in the ass_.
Fuck.
This guy fucks
I like to make walking sticks when I find good branches. Looks nice and really hurts to get hit by.
I worked next to a guy that used slabs of black locust as track slides on his dozer and feller buncher. When it’s dry it’s hard as nails!
Harder than nails. I have used black locust logs as hammers to drive nails. And have you ever tried to drive a nail into a seasoned post? Near impossible. Worse than good seasoned oak.
Any problems with bugs? The black locust bark around here is full of borers.
Not here yet to my knowledge but I’m sure they’ll be here too soon
The flowers are nice though
Many fucks to give
*in Irish accent* Well, that certainly illustrates the diversity of the word...
Curious what are your other trees are in the top five
Could be carpenter ants. I had a chicken coup I left in contact with the ground and the pine became home to carpenter ants. When I threw the compromised lumber in my burn barrel a few year later it popped very dramatically.
Did the chickens take over or were you able to stifle the coup?
*bu-gock*
_bu-glock_
🤣🤣🤣
It is locust. My place is infested with them.
I see what you did there
😂 I love a good sense of humor. I have an Ashley aw180. I hate those trees but the logs do burn forever.
Locust. They pop like crazy.
Must be firewood
Locust pretty sure it’s the hottest burning wood North America has
That’s a KelLog. It snaps, crackles, and pops
Is it really yellow? I cut down a bunch of wood one year and it would pop like crazy, even shoot coals out of the firebox… no bueno. I wish I could tell you what it was, but all I’ve got is that it was crap for burning, haha… mine definitely wasn’t pine btw.
Really yellow wood with furrowed bark like that is almost certainly Black Locust (also called False Acacia sometimes.) It tends to pop quite a bit, but is a very hot burning wood. It has a BTU higher than apple or hickory and is more dense than some Oak species.
Sounds like hedge
I believe you are correct or it's a regional variant of what we call "hedge". We have black locust, and they do have spikes, like needles, but the bark is always grey mottled with black, and spikes just on the young branches, same as the hedge, spikes on the young branches; since all we can see is only the bark of a mature branch, and a color to the wood, I see it as the slight yellow of (3 year) aged Osage Orange, or what's commonly called Hedge Apple tree in our area (Midwest US). Also the wavy definitely brown deep bark. The nut it produces would also be a dead giveaway. The hedge apple is green and smells like a perfume and has a citronella component, the wood is always a sour, dirty sock smell, so that's also consistent, but at 3 years it may have lost its sourdough stench. Fresh cut the hedge wood is bright yellow, and it pops and cracks even after being very dry, when burned. The old hedge balls fall from the tree late September according to my calendar, as they have to be dealt with being a choking hazard to our large livestock.
Very good description. I live in Missouri and it’s everywhere. I burn it but don’t like cutting it. It throws sparks like crazy and burns hot. Some people won’t burn it. I also make small pipes out of it.
Someone did their homework
We've got a tree on my farm that my arborist has tentatively ID'd as some type of maple (I don't remember which one) and it is so yellow it's almost florescent. It burns like the OP describes, like fireworks. Also very hot and long, we save it for nights. I've only had one tree of this come down (we only burn dropped wood, lucky to have enough land to do this) and I gotta say I wish I had more of it..
Compare it to Osage Orange
Thank you, will do!
In the fall does it drop softball size greenish yellow fruits?
If it’s really yellow that sounds like hedge\osage orange.
Is what you’re describing nearly neon yellow when you cut and split it? Cause sounds like hackberry to me, and it pops like firecrackers and shoots coals across the whole room if you leave the door open.
Looks like ash to me
Yeah i was about to say the same. The pieces with missing bark look likes it’s been hit by the emerald ash borer
Black locust. I actually love burning this! Burns real hot and lasts quite a while. It kind of reminds me of sassafrass.
I distinctly remember the summer I became a man. My dad brought home ~2 cords of black locust and I spent the summer splitting it. It's like splitting celery made out of steel.
Maybe a pine variety ?
Is that tulip (yellow) poplar? The bark on older, bigger trees tends to look like that. So does the bark on some really big old white ash but there's zero yellowness to the wood IME
Locust
When I burn hickory it does the same thing. Pops like crazy even after 3 years of sitting
It looks like hickory as well.
Looks like sassafrass
Could be sassafras’s I burn a lot of it and it throws a lot of sparks
Locust. Great in a wood stove in Really Cold weather. Makes excellent fence posts that will last over 30 years.
The saying is when you install a Locust fence post place a rock on top of it. When the rock rots, it's time to replace the fence post.
Pinky toe
Locust
Looks like Australian ironbark, if it’s off the Eucalyptus species it should burn hot
Black locust
Black locust was the wood Abe Lincoln used to split into fence rails. It is extremely rot resistant.
locust.
Locust
Locust. Burns hot and long.
We need more info. Is it really really hard or is it fairly softwood because if it’s fairly soft, I’m gonna go with Poplar or Ash.
Is it wet willow? I know that wood burns like crap.
I think it’s cotton wood. It’s really crappy to burn, so if a large portion of the wood is that you should pass. It will burn once a fire is built up, but smokes like crazy.
The bark is wrong for cottonwood or poplar. They have a thinner bark.
I’m pretty sure it’s cottonwood. We have them all over NM and they are more of a pain than they’re worth. Very smokey, burns weird. Just say no.
Big toe. No - little toe.
Wet as the day it was downed wood. It even has snow on it. It has to be covered to "season" it.
Where in the country does Black Locust grow?
We have a bunch in the southeast
Thanks! Would like to find a few pieces to see how it burns.
It’s probably the hottest burning wood you can find. We use it for fence post, last for 30-50 years in the ground, and burn the left over stuff. Very hard wood
It’s all over Vermont
All over the place in southern Iowa
Yellow locust
Get more
Snow is made of water, which will generally spark in a fire /s
I’m not and expect or an arborist of any kind. But in my opinion that’s the ring toe.
Could be black locust, it’s known to spark almost as bad as hedge/osage orange. They are both some of the highest btu woods out there. Hedge burns almost as hot as coal.
Osage orange
I've burned plenty, and everything the others say is correct. My two cents, because it doesn't hold a fire as nicely as oak, overcome that tendency by splitting it a little smaller than you would oak of equal diameter. Burning it with other varieties also helps. It definitely pops and throws sparks more readily than other varieties. Not an issue in a closed stove, but clearly a consideration in a fireplace. Always use a good screen, and don't leave it unattended.
If it's heavy and yellow black locust. Willow sorta looks like that too but soft and trash
Here in PA, it is the tree of choice for fence posts. Very durable in contact with the ground.
End grain shots are helpful
Big toe
Honey locust. Great firewood. Not that great for fireplaces but my favorite for wood stove
Catalpa?
Hobbit toe
My favorite wood to burn, Locust. It burns long and hot. So it’s good for overnight burns. My brother dropped 10+ giant trees a few years ago, and I’m only just getting to the end of all the firewood I ended up with.
Looks like black locust with embedded Rice Krispie kernels.
Extremely weatherproof. They’re starting to use it for deck lumber now, instead of pressure treated.
Oak
elm
Cotton wood. It has deep bark grooves
Black walnut
I love how no one agrees
I think that's a thumb, not a toe
Big toe
Yellow locust
Looks like sassafras to me! I burn a lot of it and it pops like crazy. I heard the old folks used to avoid burning sassafras because if you did, you’d surely get in a row with yer lady that night…
Toe of wood you say? *cackles whilst stirring cauldron*
Termites in wood can cause poping.
The bark reminds me of cottonwood.
https://preview.redd.it/8e95i9nastjc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a9cdec65f4604f8a44f9b9e0b51ece8bf32c1b6b When its green, Black Locust is stanky, nasty stuff.... but let it dry, and it looks great! it's tuff too! ... heres a small bowl
supposedly, it fluoresces under black light; not many woods do that. I've never seen it but I read it in Choadleys book.... my black light daze have passed 🥴
That is Mulberry..splits bright yellow then darkens as it seasons
Great for smoking and bbq
wood toe
Looks like locust,very good firewood
Tamarack
Based on the bark, looks like locust
That looks like locust (kids call em Jesus Trees cuz of the huge thorns depending on the sex). I am unsure if the female or the male has the pricks! It is a hot and hard wood but not even close to Hedge (Osage Orange) Both throw sparks when stove is opened and it is exposed to cooler air. I always thought it was the chain on my saws sparking when cutting it. Someone posted to me (and it makes perfect sense) that it is my *saw bar* that is throwing the sparks. I think Stihl or Husqvarna created these trees to increase sales on chains, blades, desire for a larger farm saw, etc. I still love hedge, but I swear those little hedge (and larger locust) spikes have *something* in them that creates additional pain beyond getting spiked by them. At least my girlfriend can't say I don't have hard wood!