Building a house outa locust.?

[FarmboyBill]

The place im looking to get has a gazillion locust of small to med/large size. Anywhere from 4in dia to 10 dia thereabouts, and LONG. Thornless. Could a log cabin be made out of those?

[doingitmyself]

I have experience in building a log cabin, the 10 logs would certianly be large enough for the walls. The 4 inch ones by the time you get em stripped and seasoned they are goin to be smallish and full of cracks. Perhaps you could use the as wall studs?

I'm not sure about Locust wood and its workability, my experience is with northern white pine. I would guess it would be usable.

[FarmboyBill]

Locust wood is HARD to strip

[TMTex]

I don't personally know anything about thornless locust, but all info I've searched for seems to indicate that it would be a good building material.

It's used as posts because it doesn't rot, it's a hardwood and they make veneer and other lumber from it. It's not popular because there's not enough out there to make it economically worthwhile to harvest on a large scale.

Sounds like a log cabin made from the stuff would be as strong as stone.

[FarmboyBill]

We used it as posts at home. Unfortunatly OR fortunatly ive got around 150 fence posts made outa oak that were cut and peeled some 5yrs ago.

[Sawmill Jim]

Originally Posted by FarmboyBill

Locust wood is HARD to strip

Certain times of the year it will peal easy .

[FarmboyBill]

Ive never seen a locust post totally peeled. I have a few occasions taken an ax and peeled one where it went into the ground. FEW occasions.

[o&itw]

Black locust or Honey locust? There is a big difference.

Usually Black loscusts only have thorns on the small branches and branchlets, and tend to have lots of sweet smelling flowers in the spring.

Honey locust usually have thorns on the trunk. But there are some varieties of Locusts that have no thorns,

If they are black locust, you need to let them dry well before you use them. It they are honey locust you need to make firewood.

[nc_mtn]

I'd say put it up green. Have you ever nailed into a dried locust???

Originally Posted by nc_mtn

I'd say put it up green. Have you ever nailed into a dried locust???

I've tried to . lol

[FarmboyBill]

Ive put steeples into many of them. Easier than dried oak, OR Osage Orange

[FarmboyBill]

It was just a passing thought. It would take too long in the dead of winter. Couldn't get enough help at that time either.

[1shotwade]

O.K. so here is the real deal on black locust! I'm sitting here looking out at a fence we put up when I was 14.That was 1964. The locust post are still standing.They are not in real good shape but will be fine unless the bull decides he wants on the other side.Dad cut a bunch of locust just before he was killed and they laid on the ground with everything growing all around and over them.That was in 1998.Today when I'm out i'll run across some with my atv (that's the only way you can find them now) and when I do I'll drop the blade and dig them out.They have zero rot.
Locust is a pretty straight tree so would be good for what you are doing.They known for splitting out on the ends. That's why you won't find lumber made of locust. If you cut 4x4 or 6x6 etc you should be good to go.To get the bark off get them on the ground and let nature take care of it. It takes a while.You'll have to ask someone about this but the old attage is for posts(or log) cut with the sap up? and for firewood cut with the sap down? I don't remember which way it is.
If you build a cabin out of locust it will easy last 100 years as long as the log is not laying on the ground, but it is a hard,dense wood,quite heavy and hard to work.Plan on using lag bolts or nut and bolt but forget nailing.The only maintenance you could expect is to caulk the cracks once a year.Hope this helps.