Black Locust / Question

[straightshooter1]

Last spring I took down a black locust tree in the yard. I have one 6 ft section of the trunk that I saved with the idea of salvaging at least one good cut of lumber out it for a rifle or two.
Question I have is, how best to cut this. I have a chain saw. I have handsaws. I have a table saw. Or should I consider taking it to someone with the correct equipment to cut this correctly.
Also, how should it be cut?
Any ideas are appreciated.
Thank You

[northmn]

How big around is the base?  A modern rifle will take a smaller plank but a ML fullstock requires at least an 8" to 9" width to permit about a 3" drop and 5" buttplate.  Should really be wider unless you are making a very late rifle.  I split a stock out of a birch with wedges and chainsaw, and then bandsawed down to a stock.  If a saw mill is available it is not all that bad of an idea.  You will also need about a thickness of 2 1/2 inches min.  On a very large trunk (24" or over) you should be able to get a couple of quarter sawed planks and a couple of plain sawed, but I do not believe black locust is that large of a tree.  Measure its base and lay out a circle equivalent to it on a sheet of paper and see what you can get.

DP

[straightshooter1]

Dave,
Its about 10-11" diameter at the base.

[Kermit]

Could be pretty iffy once you avoid the heart and the sapwood. I'd love to have such a hunk for boaty stuff--cleats, oarlock pads, block cheeks...

[Jerry V Lape]

Never have seen a black locust gun stock before.  In fact I have never seen anything made of it besides fence posts and various post applications like pier supports, an application for which it is well suited.  Why put all the work into a stock for a lumber not particularly attractive and heavier the devil.  Have fun keeping your tools sharp on all the silicon content too. 

[P.W.Berkuta]

SPOT-ON --- My father-in-law had 4 small black locust trees (5" to 10" in dia.) he wanted to take down. I borrowed my dads chain saw and an extra chain and went to work -- 3.5 hrs later and MANY times sharpening those chains I FINALLY got those trees down and cut up -- I will NEVER touch a black locust tree again!

Never have seen a black locust gun stock before.  In fact I have never seen anything made of it besides fence posts and various post applications like pier supports, an application for which it is well suited.  Why put all the work into a stock for a lumber not particularly attractive and heavier the devil.  Have fun keeping your tools sharp on all the silicon content too. 

[Don Getz]

The best thing you could do with that locust tree (10"-12"), too small to make a gunstock, ...cut it into about 2' lengths
and split it, makes great firewood.............Don

[bgf]

That would make a good stout gatepost, as long as you nail/screw anything you need to it before it cures completely, at which point, you'd probably have an easier time working with concrete post.

[Herb]

I had an English professor from West Virginia at Upper Iowa University in 1951, he said black locust made good fence posts.  Would last 40 years. (I failed English).

[Acer Saccharum]

You gun won't rot, that's for sure!

Tom

[Dan'l 1946]

  Around here, black locust is often called "Yankee teak" due to its ability to resist rot. Great for fence posts and boat use, but heavy as sin and hard to work. I wouldn't want a gun stocked with it, but at least there would be no worries about the stock rotting away!
                                                          Dan

[straightshooter1]

Well guys,
I guess I should say thanks for all of the feedback.
That being said, I did need to take this tree down, and it did go through 5 SHARP chains to get it all cut up. And the price of the wood is right. (FREE). I know, you get what you pay for!
Also, anything I build has never been of any particular style, or school or period except that it resembles some and it loads from the front. I build em to my taste, flavor and offbeat likes. They do shoot well and handle well for me. As fo being different, yep, nobody else hears my tune!
I may just go ahead and do this anyway, just for the challenge. Broken and dulled tools or excersize in frustration or not, NOTHING VENTURED, NOTHING GAINED!!
Again,
THANKS!

[Robby]

It makes into a pretty good bow. Not all that attractive, but, if you were to make something with a fairly light barrel I don't think it would be overly heavy. Interesting project, good luck with it!
Robby

[Jerry V Lape]

So you are still going to screw up a good fence or mail box post! 

[Dale Campbell]

Maybe not.  If he doesn't like it he can still stick it in the ground for a post.  The locust'll last about two years longer than the barrel.

[gusd]

Excellent Longbow laminations! Fence posts also!
Longrifles not so good!
Gus

[northmn]

So you are still going to screw up a good fence or mail box post!  

   I think your tree is a little small for a serious gunstock, but I thought I have heard of some being used in modern stocks.  It is kind of fun to go from scratch like that, but you may be better served with a different tree.  The birch I used was different, but I only used it as I have had trouble finding any maple.  Where I live the most common hardwoods are aspen, birch, oak, elm and maple with a few ash thrown in.  They frost split in the winter badly and the maples of gunstock variety do not thrive.

DP

[rich pierce]

Black locust would make a great over the log gun stock if you can get a log big enough w/o rot.  Black locust is a transition tree, found in disturbed places, where it serves to reclaim a deforested or bare area until more "climax" trees can take over.  As such, it has a medium lifespan and they start to rot or get "pethy" around 40-60 years of age.  It does make great bows; I have made a half dozen and it is my favorite, even over osage.  Also known in some areas by lumbermen as "pi$$ oak" because of it's color and toughness, it makes great floors.  There's nothing fancy about the grain; the "figure" looks like plain hickory.  There are many reasons some gunstock woods were preferred over others.  In my estimation, abundance of large, tall, straight-trunked trees is a very important criteria our forefathers used.  Of course the wood needed to be stable, strong, have some shock resistance, be of a certain weight range, reasonable to work, and ideally have some beauty.  Black locust is markedly more dense than sugar maple, which is the densest common stock wood used for longrifles.  I'll probably make a rifle of it someday, right after my hickory stock, lol.

[J.D.]

Split it lengthwise for billets for longbows. Black locust is good bow wood.

[MarkEngraver]

Yes, Split it into Bow staves. Black Locust is a great bow wood.  A favorite of mine after Osage Orange. Just a little trickier to tiller.

Mark

[woodsrunner]

Rich and I discussed Black Locust a time or two several years ago, and agree that if it could be properly milled out it would probably make an excellent chunkgun stock. It's hard as all get-out, and I promise you that trying to work with a log that was cut 10-12 months ago will drive you to strong drink! Working it green would be difficult, and seasoned several months would border on the impossible with conventional woodworking tools. The species does have a couple of good qualities, though......

As pointed out, B. Locust is extremely rot resistant. A good heartwood post will outlast 2 or 3 postholes! The greatest quality it has is its dimensional stability. No other species of hardwood native to the USA has a higher stability factor than Black Locust. Remember the old glass insulators seen on telephone and telegraph poles? The wooden pegs these were screwed down on attaching them to the crossarms were made out of B.Locust. Didn't matter wheather the telephone/telegraph pole was in Maine in February, or Florida during the rainy season or in the deserts of Arazona.....the threaded Locust peg would not swell or shrink any measurable degree otherwise the glass insulators would be broken. The pressure or lack of pressure at any specific point on a chunkgun barrel  would never change! 

[westerner]

Black Locust can get large. I fell one that was about 4 feet in diameter. Wagon wheel hubs and other parts were made with it in the old days.

          Joe.

[rich pierce]

It's a great wood- but it isn't pretty!  Sure have to keep the tools sharp.  If somebody does saw up some thick planks I'll buy or trade for one.

[Rasch Chronicles]

I'm all for it!

Nothing like doing something that everyone thinks is ummm... Crazy!

Though I think that you might have better success trying to go with a pistol stock rather than a full stock.

Now if I could only find a piece of quarter sawn LiveOak big enough for a chunk gun...

Regards,
Albert A Rasch
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles

[woodsrunner]

Live Oak isn't harvested for commercial use to the best of my knowledge. It has no commercial value beyond being used for dragline mats occasionally. At least none that I'm aware of, and I've been in the timber business in the Live Oak range since the 1960's. I doubt if modern woodworking tools would handle it. I've seen it sawn a few times for crossties, and the headrig or circlesaw had to be constantly sprayed down with kerosene to keep it cool and lubricated. The Wood Handbook...the Bible of commercially important species...doesn't even mention Live Oak beyond listing it in the white oak group.

 In the days of sailing ships it was used for ribs and knees in wooden ship building (it's highly rot resistant). It was a common practice for New England Yankees to come down to coastal Georgia and Florida in the wintertime and chop out crotches for knees and straight timbers for other parts of wooden ships. These would be burried in coastal salt marshes for a couple of years to "cure" and then be shipped back up to the ship building areas of New England. These chopped out pieces are still found occasionally in the marshes, and our Board member, James Levy, has preserved several for historical purposes.