Black Locust for Fence Posts

You may remember my earlier posts about our Black Locust Jelly and Black Locust Wine. I referenced the formidable aspects of this controversial tree. My personal opinon is that this tree is native to the Ozarks and as such that it belongs and should have places to remain a part of the ecosystem for generations to come. For one, it is a valuable timber tree because the wood is so hard. It also resists rotting, and makes for amazing fence posts and rails. I've already gone on and on about the uses of the flowers when it blossoms in the spring. It does have a dark side, though.

Some of the trees pictured here are honey locusts, which has longer thorns than the black locust and they often grow in large clusters. Some of the first trees that were taken down on our land in order for us to build our driveway were locust trees. Rather than push them into burn piles with all the other logs, we cut the straight sections of them to save for use later as fenceposts. Locust posts make amazing fenceposts due to their dense, rot-resistant nature. I've heard old timers say that the post will rot above ground before it rots underground. They are tough, useful logs around a farm, and ones that we did not want to just throw away.

Because the wood gets harder and denser quite quickly after cutting down the tree, we needed to work quickly to cut post-length sections because waiting later would prove too difficult. We managed to salvage about 15 posts and we plan to use them in the construction of a round pen for the horses.