Black locust wood working

[sime42]

Hello all

This is my latest bit of wood turning. It's an earing stand for the Mrs. I started off with a log of unknown wood from some tree I cut down a while ago and then forgot about. Once I'd finished the turning I was curious about the ID so after a bit of research I worked out that it's Robinia Pseudoacacia or Black Locust as it's often called.

Anyway I was really pleased with the way the wood works and finishes. It's come up lovely. Very close grained, no faults that I found and kind of waxy to cut on the lathe. The only downside is that the end grain was bloody hard to sand by hand, (to remove a parting off mark).

Apparently it's some kind of wonder wood in terms of strength, hardness, toughness, durability etc etc. It rivals Hickory for tool handles for instance. All news to me.

Anyone else got any experience of using this for woodworking? I can highly recommend it.

 

 

 

[skc101fc]

A lovely bit of work there. The perseverance with the end grain is a real credit to you. Well done.
Shaun

[se7enthdevil]

i can highly recommend it too as it's one of my favored timbers to turn as it's so stable when drying it and turns and sand's up a treat...

 

here's one of my efforts.

[se7enthdevil]

robinia is on a parr with the statistics of hickory and beats ash hands down and i've often wondered why we don't use it for other purposes like fences,  flooring, tool handles, sporting goods, tree wedges, exterior furniture, furniture, bollards and of course areas in nightclubs that need to glow in UV light as this stuff glows bright green/yellow.

[sime42]

Cheers guys
Nice bowls there. That's something I need to develop, bowl turning. Not done any for years. That's a nice hard shine you've got there se7enthdevil? What did you finish them with?
Apparently Robinia is a lot more widely used in America where it originates from. For things such as you suggest. Never heard of it being used in nightclubs though! The glowing is an interesting property.
On the negative side the trees can sometimes be a problem. They grow as weeds in some areas where they're really comfortable. And have even been classified as invasive species in some places I think. They're all over the world now.

[Jamespepperpot]

I love robinia, its one of my favourite woods to work with despite being so hard. I recently used it to re handle a hammer I bought at an old tool shop and also made a buddy of mine a golf ball display rack out of it. The quarter sawn faces on it have some incredible grain patterns

[se7enthdevil]

the hardness is one reason as to why i like it so much. i used it to make a handle for a 14lb sledge hammer head i got off ebay as i know it can be left outside and not rot.

 

i did the same with a 5lb axe to split my firewood with and it comes highly recommended for me

[sloth]

I've got an old woodworking book on the shelf with a list of uv reactive timber in, if anyone's interested I'll photo the page and post it here later...

[sloth]

For interest - fluorescent timber info from an old woodworking book. The stags horn sumac sounds good...

[sime42]

Very interesting. Thanks Sloth. Agreed, the Staghorn Sumac sounds amazing.