This weekend i was able to havest some tough, nasty trees from behind my moms house. They were growing beside an atv and she didnt want anyone to walk into the tree at night or get shredded by the thorns . it grows clusters of thorns all over ever along the limbs. It the fall it has bean pods that the deer inhale. Ive always heard it to be a locust tree. So i took my time felling these jokers.

I used my machete like a draw knife to sheer the thorns off b4 I cut them down with an axe.. I managed to fell 6 trees before i had a thorn penetrate my the bottom of boot and foot. The bark came off like a banana peel . once it dried a little( it was slimy almost) i covered the back and ends with amber shellac after i split it.I havent made a bow since before college. Im excited.

Hey Chance, watch that cut on your arm for signs of infection. Black locust trees can produce some type of irritant every couple years that can cause problems. The reason I know this is bc my buddy ended up in hospital hooked up to IV from a spreading infection caused by getting scratched by black locust thorns.

Nice job harvesting the wood!

Cant tell you what they are for certain, but certainly not black locust.

I agree, the bark does not look like black locust. The leaf clusters, from what I can see, sorta do. The thorns in a black locust tree are predominantly on the branches, not the trunk.

Might be a honey locust.

Jon Stewart just nailed it....I looked it up in a book I have.....

Not black locust for sure. BL makes a great bow. Never tried Honey Locust. If it is like BL, treat it more like Osage and chace a heartwood ring, rather than using the first layer of sapwood as on white wood bows.

I've never seen any of those trees around here. I'm gonna be on the lookout to see if I can find one. That would be a booger to brush up against in the dark!

Honey locust for sure. Bad tree, seed pots get spread by animals and next thing you know you will have a pasture full. Hate them Honey Locust trees. You can bush hog pasture twice every year and they will still be back the next year.

We have an abundance of honey locust around here. It's not much good for anything but fence posts and flat tires.

It makes beautiful laminations.

well I have a few locust staves I'm going to terrible things to with a draw knife and rasp hehehe.. Paybacks a ..well you know. All of the "victims" have alot of character to them. In a way a feel a since of connection with the land . Just think a moment: to harvest a nuisance tree with work and devotion will turn it into a lethal weapon. A tool that will alloy me the means of harvesting animals to feed my family from the patch of dirt whence the wood came. A patch of land that has been in the family since before the civil war.How many generations has it been since a bow was cut from this land it was use to feed the hunters family? It all comes full circle.

Honey locust trees have thorns Black locust here in Ky do not. Gary

Honey locust for sure. I have made a bow from it. It isn't near the bow wood that black locust is. It is a pretty wood - yellow with a pinkish colored heart wood. I wood make my limbs plenty wide and long. Mine took a little more set than I would have liked.

Why isnt it as good of a bow wood?

Honey locust has all kinds of problems as a bow wood. It will however make a bow if everything goes right and it can make very fast bows. HL is light and brittle, it chysals easily and is not very strong in tension so it all snaps in 1/2 easily. If you make a 50# bow about 2" wide and 66" long you will have a good chance of getting a nice bow.

Shouldn't that be "I KILLED a few trees this weekend"? Most guys on this forum hate the word HARVEST.

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