My First Time Sawing Honey Locust 

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It's a good day when Matt Cremona uploads a sawmill video

That disconnected ring shake made a natural single board river table .

When the water spills on the slab 👌 love it

One of my favorite woods to build furniture with. Pairs well with walnut accents. Side note, part of the wood glows in a black light. Really neat to see for the first time.

You have built yourself a awesome mill, thanks for the video.

You didn't have spiky thorns to worry about. We got lots of those around here. Blood sacrifice required to remove one. Through a glove, through your boot or heavy denim, it's gonna happen.

Love it!!! So nice that such a beautiful log doesn’t go to waste.

Honey Locust and Black Locust are great woods to work with . The grain in both are spectacular and the wood is very rot resistant, better than PT. It was used in the wooden ship building as Treenails (pronounced TRUNAL) the wooden pegs that hold the ship together. It is hard and can chip and spit when working, but the end reults are great.

Here in Ga I have never seen a Honey Locust but it is pretty darn nice stuff.Thanks for sharing.

I recently got a piece of black locust , made 3 pieces of wall art .Oh ya hi from LONDON ,Ont Matt I think you know this place !!!!

Great seeing you again sawing some logs. This is some beautiful wood, I wouldn’t have thought it would be this great looking. Thanks for sharing. God Bless.

120 years and you got a fun thing going for you

Very nice surprises !

I've cut a lot of honey locust for flooring but never seen one that big! Definitely gorgeous wood and super durable too.

I think that is some of the prettiest slabs I have seen you mill on your bandsaw

Wow! That grain is beautiful 😍

We have TONS of this in West Central Indiana. Basically considered a "trash tree". Great for fence posts. But between the thorns that go through boot soles, truck tires and anything else, it's notorious for "eating" chain saw blades, saw blades, and axes in very short order.

WELL HEYA MATE, lol that is one heck of a nice Honey Locust, it's a lucky thing it's a male or you be sword fighting with that thing tooth and nail, Hope you've been having a great time getting settled in at the new place and hope you all had a good mothers day too. Now will see how cool this beautiful-looking log is and maybe chat ya'lls ears off about it at the end of the video too.

It's a good question - why do lumber yards not carry locust boards? Interestingly I guess moonshiners used to prefer locust for fueling their distilling equipment, because locust burns extraordinarily hot and does not product a lot of smoke so it was easy to keep your operation hidden from law enforcement.

Love milling honeylocust it’s beautiful

I've sawn quite a few honey locust here in the Ozarks. Beautiful grain. You're right. Very dense. Extremely rot resistant. Deadly thorns too.

Haven't heard you that excited about a log in a while. It's pretty awesome though. ✌️👍

Make a beautiful table top!

Very beautiful log. Love your videos.

I've had 2 I hated to cut for fire wood but that's what happened very nice looking wood. From the mid Atlantic sewer area.

Honey Locust - supposedly rot resistant and great for fence posts... Very dense and heavy. The bark looks different than what I know as Locust here in Missouri, but the tendancy for shakes and ant-holes is identical. Lots of big black ants pour out when cutting... Tough mostly for firewood

Nice slabs. Wiki has it at a Janka 1580 - harder than Maple. If you use it on a project, please let us know how it is to work with and if it changes color like walnut. Thanks Matt.

I had a big Honey locust tree cut down at my house. It was only a couple inches narrower than that one. Its a pretty hard and dense wood. I mostly made bowls from it but got tired of that and slabbed some out with my Alaskan chain saw mill. The tree had a ton of stress in it and most of the bowls cracked during the drying process. My basement had the sweet smell to it for a while when I was roughing the green bowls out

You may already know, locust glows under black light...so part of how nice the just sawn color seems is because it is glowing from the UV in sunlight...

Not only is it heavy and hard, it dulls tools like CRAZY. But man is that some beautiful wood.

When I mill my logs I give all the burls a name. They're all called Milton.

When we had our sawmill and plenty of sources for native hardwood logs we cut up things like locust, sycamore, red oak. white oak and anything else local to N. Indiana. We decided at some point that a Belsaw sawmill was probably a little too dangerous and sold it.

That is beautiful wood.

I got a bunch of black locust and mulberry logs I need cut up. Wish you were closer. 😢

Wow, they rarely get that big in NY. Which is a good thing. They have the cruelest thorns around!

honey locust is one of the prettiest woods you can work with in my opinion

Honey locusts makes beautiful flooring

Go ahead pause it and count the rings.. I love your sense of humor!

The center of the 2nd piece after you flipped the log over looked like unit had a teepee image. Really cool. As to the fragrance it isn't called honey locust for the color of its bark. :)

Ever cut sassafras? It smells like working in a root beer factory 😂

Always great Thx

I have milled it and used it. Nice wood but does not have any of the characteristics of Black Locust

Very pretty wood. It will make great tables, with a bit of epoxy.

I counted it to be around 50 rings old probably not exactly the number but it's very close👍👍👍 took a screen shot and zoomed in and marked each one with an s-pin and counted in two directions from center👍anybody else count?

Show some things that are made from this beautiful lumber

Black locust trees were used years ago for fence posts. It's also very hard wood. In my adolescent years I was given a 'character-building' chore of hand sawing a pile of old locust posts into firewood lengths. Stuff was hard as rock.

Yes-sir-ee, That is a classic Locust tree right there Matt. Having been in the tree trimming and landscaping industries my self I have seen a lot of the trees from that family, and you have probably seen a few of them too, but like myself, the thought of how the cousin of the Honey Locust likes to grow in clusters and many times they grow so close together they look almost like there was a fork in the tree going from the base of the tree. The Black Locust is the most common of the family around here in the Ohio Valley region and the English Locust, which for the most part is a transplanted Hybrid from Europe I believe. The first thing I thought was that this tree had been hit by a car or truck, or maybe storm damage could have been the culprit, then after you had the second cut on it the sight of a bark inclusion reminded me of how they grow in tight groups and it probably had grown up and overtaken one of its siblings that had sprouted up about 50 years later, once it had closed over it, it caused the splitting of the original one. It does have some very beautiful color and grain patterns in it which in Black Locust as well as Honeys, you hardly see a lot of due to the very slow rates of growth. It been nice to have gotten more of that tree there since it was such a large one. If you could show how it has aged since slabbing it that be cool too, Black Locust turn a deep yellowish color from what I've seen but most people make fence post from them since they are like cedars and don't rot very fast stuck in the ground.

I've seen a lot of Honey Locust but I have never seen one with a diameter like that one. It lasts forever and doesn't rot.

It's lighter (both in color and in density) and not quite as rot resistant and hard as black locust. But not very far away. Both had honey locust and black locust have very little sapwood, and even the sapwood is quite rot resistant. And both are taxing on tools - black locust far more than honey locust.

What's the story with the tall skid of timbers behind you in the last scene of the video? Getting started on the timber frame for the new shop?

Honey Locust is an invasive species, so I'm all for making nice wood stuff with them. Black Locust is cool, too. Grows super fast, puts nitrogen in the soil, and is a tough wood.

I just brought home 6 straight locusts logs 72 inches long. Firewood or chainsaw mill? Hmmm.

Wood is what brings the colors and art, Matt brings the excellent humor and personality. Thx Matt. Bring on the smell-a-Vision

I see you splurged and bought a new bucket. It works good.

Matt thats some beautiful wood. Stay safe.

I made a river table out of some Honey Locus wood. It is a beautiful wood to use.

So glad to see you sawing again.

Now you're talking Matt!!! This wood is awesome. I can see a nice bookcase with book matched sides with a slab of this. Good to see you posting videos of slabbing again, we learn stuff from these vids.

I always wanted to see what Black Locust looks like sawn for lumber. The Honey Locust is interesting too.

Matt, how much did it cost you to build this saw that you built?

Looks like it might have had a freeze-split, mains damage from another tree or a lightning strike that it overgrew in subsequent years.

Great video 👍 just turned a bowl out of Honey locust

I’m thinking lightning strike possibly. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Looking for the link to the tree with the bird feeder grown in.

That's a beautiful wood. Entertaining and informative as always!

I just had a California live oak and I the trunk. It's 12 feet long and 24" at the largest diameter. I need to find someone to cut it into slabs. I'm in Ontario California. Any suggestions?

Yeah. locustwood is a whole different story. try putting a 3-inch screw through one without pre-drilling and you'll see what I mean.

Glad you got a new video out. I for some reason can watch any big band saw wood. So thanks.

You should get your hands on some Black Locust. Walnut will forever be boring after that!

Where did you get the log. I'm looking for some local ones to propagate from... I guess since this is in log form that probably wont work... lol

If you eat a couple of the seeds when they are green they will totally open your mind. I was up till like 2am reading Revelations which I never do after I ate a couple green locust seeds I found at a native American Burial ground. I'm sure the wood is valuable tho lol

That wood is beautiful, make a coffee table, end tables night stands, I am a wood lover myself, I made a lot of maple furniture in school because mother had colonial furniture in the house.

Gooood evening from central Florida! Hope everyone has a great night!

My son has honey locust and black locust on his farm land in Central Virginia. I'm going to use some for knife handles.

If you save scraps for fire wood be careful, After Osage orange Honey locust is the hottest wood.

Anyone see the face in the end of the log at 5:38?

We've had some of these around in the woods here. I haven't worked any, but it always seemed like it would be a very brittle wood. Maybe not?

Conversely, I have some honey locusts that is like to have turned into some floors, but I'm not going to build a saw to do it.

Because this tree has "defects" it would normally be sent to a wood chipper or left to rot. You have given it a chance at a second life as a beautiful piece of furniture. Great job as always, Matt.

How do you prevent the bunks from rusting ?

Would make some gorgeous tops for small tables or panels for cabinet doors.

Honey locusts are evil, evil trees. But if you want to take one down you're welcome to stop by and take mine the next time you go on a road trip to see April or Anne.

What is it with you saw jockys tossing buckets of water????? #GotHose

The honey locust that I have worked always had ring shakes.

Shake shake shake... (horn section) shake shake shake... Nice log!

Not a bad guess. I did count the rings got about 1/3 of thr way down it was 50 rings.

thats worth like 14 billion dollars in current lumber prices.

See this species street planted in a lot of euro cities in recent years lovely shade tree . Great video lovely colours an ideal use for guitar back n sides and neck?

Honey Locust works beautifully with hand tools. You do have to clean up your blades quite a bit, but nothing like hickory or black locust. I would love to use some in larger projects...only been able to do some smaller carvings and such with the stuff

A "good defect" is not an oxymoron according to you!

Anyone looking for good tree trunks to cut in DC, Maryland area?

Honey Locust is commonly used for fence posts because it is rot-resistant. I have a honeylocust crotch and plan to make a big bowl (4-foot) out of it.

Kentucky Coffee tree looks just as nice on the inside with out the thorns on the outside

Does honey locust have the same low rot as the eastern cedar and the southern locust?

It almost looks like canary wood in the color.

Just fyi: I’m very allergic to advertising, but having a “sponsor message” narrated by you in a video with the option to fast-forward is probably the smoothest way to do it. It’s a decent compromise, I think. P.S. Cool tree!

Maybe the sawdust would be good for potpourri?

Ever cut Hackberry on the mill?? I have about a 40' trunk 30-40" diameter that I will be cutting into 8-10' logs. If not would love to bring them to the mill!

When do you plan to move the saw mill to your new house?