Burning black locust

[raybonz]

Hello there Dennis, I see you have been test burning some locust, been burning alot my self these last couple weeks. My good stash is mostly all yellow locust now (honey) I think there the same. I half to change my cat start load a little different than other woods, when I load full of all locust I let her rip to get up to temp, engage the cat, then only close the air about half way or more to normal cat burn.
That keeps the secondaries active while enough smoke is still there to get the cat going strong without stalling, then the heat out put really kicks in. I let that stage go for about 15- 20 min then cut air back to normal cat burn. I call it my two stage locust start.
This hybrid side of the stove is what has made me a big fan of the progress, plus locust keeps my stove temps around 75-100 deg hotter and pipe temp 20-30 deg warmer through out the burn cycle. I really like the coal bed at the end, rake them all forwards towards the air hole on the progress open bypass & air and in about 15 min she is glowing hot with a view of those blue/purple flames.
Spread them out load her up and she's ready to rip again. I do load with smaller splits on the bottom and the big guns on top, seems to work best for me. Burning a hotter stove has cut my burn times down 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hrs but she usually don't ever drop below 80 in here ( I love it ! ) Keep warm my Friend hope you figure out the trick to locust in your Fireview that I have come to enjoy.
By the way, checked the new liner last week for the first time, about a 1/16" of brown powder dusting build up (like in your past pics you have posted) Really awesome no black crap at all, happy camper I am with this Woodstock/insulated rigid liner setup.
Good Post too, I enjoy the locust burning ones.

Todd2

(broken link removed to http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm)

Yes black and honey locust are close with honey being a tad better as seen in the above referenced chart..

Ray

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Sounds good Todd. I had been turning the draft to 50% when engaging but still no dice. But I might also think it could be because our chimney is shorter. It usually gives no problems but perhaps this is one instance that it did. I also think we would have had to add on to the chimney had we put the Progress in.

 

[StihlHead]

I do not understand the problems burning BL. I got a half cord last year from an arborist that said "I hope you have a good stove to burn this stuff in". Not to worry! It was good and dry, already cut and split, and only cost me gas money. I had zero problems burning it. Open door, throw in wood, close door. Lots of heat, burns long, coals up, great firewood. I did not notice any stink to it, but I an used to burning cottonwood so anything that does not smell like cat pee is fine with me.

Reading about BL online on the BTU/wood species burning characteristic web sites, they often list BL as 'hard to burn.' I wish I had more hard to burn species in my stacks.

 

[Stax]

Stihl, I'm with you. I could care less about the smell as well. Love BL.

 

[Flatbedford]

I was dong some random googling on Black Locust. It makes some nice lumber.
http://www.blacklocustlumber.com/index.html

 

[Machria]

You definitely need to be burning some sassafras!

Why, does that smell?

I have found that one year should be OK for BL. I have also found that smaller splits are better for BL.

Oh krykeeee! Now you guys tell me! I just finished splitting a few cords over the last few weeks of BL, and split it all BIG, so I can get long burns with it. Now suddenly it needs to be small, ans stinks!

I find all wood species have their unique burning characteristics. It is like getting used to a new stove. Switch to a new species of wood and you likely will take a couple of days to get used to how to start it and burn it. That is part of the reason why I don't separate my wood. It is all mixed and therefore goes in the stove that way, so I have less problems with switching species.

Hmmmm.... very interesting thought. I used to split and stack anything and everything randomly, never even thought about what it was. Lately, I've been splitting and stacking each species separetaly, and was just thinking the other day how I would handle that in the next few years, do I dig into two different stacks (BL for cold days, pine and maple.... for the other days)? I kinda like the just mix it all up idea.

I've burned primarily BL mixed with Hemlock this season with good results. I like to run 4 hemlock splits N/S on top of a nice coal bed and all BL on top. Usually gives me a nice fire with good heat. I will agree with members in that it does smell. I still think when cutting and splitting that it has a "sweet, farmy" smell if that makes sense. The stove also has a certain smell after burning a load, but a smell I haven't figured out.

It smells like olives when freshly split and stacked. I confirmed that 100%. Does it smell like olives when burned?


Lastly, anyone with a PH burn any BL loads? How does the PH handle it?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Why, does that smell?

Smells super sweet when cutting. I think about the sweetest smelling wood there is. Not the best for burning but will do for short fires.