Just cut a black locust

[petertay15]

A storm toppled a large black locust, yielding a 48-foot log, 14 inches wide at the top, 28 inches at the base. I'll cut it into 8 foot lengths and haul them to sawmill for 8/4 boards of varying widths. Looks like I'll have lots of hard, heavy, rot-resistant wood! I'm thinking of outdoor garden benches.

I air dry my wood in a shed, but my question is: Could I skip the drying process and just make benches out of the wet wood? These will be stocky benches with big mortise and tenons, adding PL Premium glue where needed. I've used PL on wet treated lumber and it makes a solid bond, so I'm guessing it would work here too.

Anyone have experience working with black locust? Does QS or PS make a difference? I've never locust lumber, but we built a long stick-style walking bridge over a gully using dry branches off the forest floor. The bridge is still solid as can be 25 years later. -- Peter

[YSU65]

I have made a small table out air dried QS locust.  Very good look.  Very hard, had to replace planer blade after surfacing.

[MichaelMouse]

You certainly can make rustic outdoor benches out of fresh wood.  Get out your wedge, sledge and gluts and sweat on.  Did some from soft maple for indoor use a few years back.  If you saw them, it's less process and more product.  Either way, good workout with scrub and Jack plane to keep your butt free of splinters. Which is why locust may not be your best choice for what's not in contact with the ground.  Aspen was my choice for the shave horse and stools.  Finns use it in the sauna because they can slide their butt in safety.  

One thought, even if you saw.  Crown the seat a bit so it will shed any major water.

[jteneyck]

I would air dry it.  If you work it green the joints will open up regardless of how much adhesive you use.  You could use wedged thru tenons, but if you get the wood milled and stickered now it will be AD by next Summer.  How much are you going to use an outdoor bench for the rest of this year? 

I think black locust gets an unfounded bad rep about how hard it is to work.  I built this bench out of black locust about 6 years ago, and finished it with Epifanes:



I used AD wood to make the bench, but it was probably more like 16 - 20% MC rather than 12 - 14% which would be the EMC for where I live.  I had no trouble working the wood, but a few weeks after I finished it some of the pieces developed cracks, mostly the arms, where the sun had baked them.  And that happened even thought there was 7 coats of varnish on it.  If you use really green wood, I would expect lots of cracking as it dries.  I used TB III to glue the M&T joints and have had no problems.  

BL is hard and heavy, but it works easily with carbide tooling.  I didn't see any unusual wear on my tooling, even my HSS planer blades.  BL is a joy to sand; it has a lubricious quality, almost like talcum powder.  If you don't finish it then I would expect splinters could be a problem.  I've had no such issues since I varnished the one I made.   

FWIW, the bench still looks like the photo, except for cracks I mentioned.  I have redone the Epifanes twice to address a few areas where the sun blistered it.  Oh, the design is from one I saw in FWW several years ago made with Spanish cedar IIRC, with just a few modifications. 

John


I would get some of it milled into at least 12/4 stock, and let it dry 2 years.  8/4 stock isn't going to be thick enough for bench legs of any proportion, unless you laminate it, and that's not something I'd want to do for an outdoor bench.  Just my opinion.

[Phil S.]

John-

What did you use for the feet on your bench, HDPE?

Phil

[fredhargis]

That bench is really nice, well done!

[jteneyck]

John-

What did you use for the feet on your bench, HDPE?

Phil

Phil, they are rubber furniture coasters I found at HD.  I glued them on after coating the bottom of the legs with epoxy.  I wanted to keep the legs up out of the wet; so far, all is well, except the rubber is degrading some.  But they are easily replaced, when necessary, so I'm not complaining.  

John

[Steve N]

That is a really nice bench John. If you hadn't of said, I would never had guessed it was Black Locust. That thing looks like $$$$$$$$$ MONEY $$$$$$$$$

[jteneyck]

Thanks Steve.  Black locust is an under appreciated wood.  We all know it is very decay resistant but not many know it is also very beautiful when finished, and it's not nearly as hard to work as often is claimed.  I am more than a little jealous of the OP's good fortune.  That is a monster black locust for my locale, and should yield a lot of nice lumber.  I've only had two or three logs to mill and am down to just a few small remaining pieces. 

John

[FloridaRetiree]

Great post!

Never worked with that specie.