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LOCUST, BLACK

Robinia pseudoacacia

Robinia pseudoacacia of the family Fabacea, the pea family. A very hard, durable wood. Another "locust" wood, honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos, also of the family Fabacea), has its own page on this web site. Although the two woods can sometimes be hard to distinguish, generally speaking black locust is yellowish/greenish and honey locust has a pink or orange tint, not yellow or green. Most importantly, black locust pores are always full of tyloses whereas honey locust does not have tyloses.

Also called "robina" (from the genus), "false acacia" (from the specific epithet) and "white acacia", "White" locust", and "yellow locust", and just "locust"

Black locust is one of those species that have large early growth pores that are just packed with tyloses (even more than white oak). This is easily visible in the end grain updates in my own samples below where the pores appear to be clogged with sanding dust but are actually full of tyloses.

Black locust is highly fluorescent under UV light, as you can see from one of my sample pics down below.

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One of the ways to distinguish honey locust and black locust from each other, aside from the usual obvious differences in color, is that black locust usually has tyloses in the pores and honey locust does not have it but does have occasional red stuff clogging the pores:

a rather extreme example of the occasional red stuff clogging pores in honey locust vs the tyloses in almost all black locust pores

my samples: NOTE: these pics were all taken in very bright incandescent lighting ("soft white" at 2700K) colors will vary under other lighting conditions

both sides of sample plank of black locust / Robinia pseudoacacia --- This sample was sold to me as honey locust as part of a wood ID kit by the IWCS, a supposedly professional wood society. I just assumed that the ID was correct but I have subsequently found that they get it wrong QUITE often. This wood is definitely black locust, not honey locust.


end grain and end grain closeup of the sample plank directly above




END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above; this pic is slightly too red and it is inverted relative to the original


both sides of a sample plank of black locust / Robinia pseudoacacia --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a sample plank of black locust / Robinia pseudoacacia --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


both sides of a sample plank of black locust / Robinia pseudoacacia --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


first face and the end grain of a sample of black locust / Robinia pseudoacacia. This part of a collection which is discussed here: COLLECTION A


the second face, before and after sanding, showing how the patina from aging is only surface deep.


end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above.


both sides of a sample of black locust / Robinia pseudoacacia. This part of a collection which is discussed here: COLLECTION A and is one of the few pieces from that collection that were too skinny to do end grain pics.


first face and the end grain of a sample of yellow locust / Robinia pseudoacacia. This part of a collection which is discussed here: COLLECTION B


the second face, before and after slicing off 1/8" showing how the patina from aging is only surface deep.


end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above.


first face and the end grain of a sample of black locust / Robinia pseudoacacia --- This part of a collection which is discussed here: COLLECTION G


the second face, before and after sanding it down a bit, showing how the patina from aging is only surface deep.


end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above


both sides of a sample plank from a black locust root / Robinia pseudoacacia --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. This piece was amazingly light, and the vendor, Mark Peet, tells me that the lightness is typical of black locust root wood. The reason for it in this piece is pretty clear --- normal black locust is ring porous but with large earlywood pores at the beginning of the earlywood and then there's usually a lot of wood until the next row of earlywood pores. In this piece, you can see that except right next to the pith, the large pores are a solid mass everywhere which makes for a lot of holes in the wood thus the lightness.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a sample plank of black locust root / Robinia pseudoacacia --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. See the comments with the sample directly above (this piece is from the same vendor, Mark Peet)


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a sample plank from a black locust root / Robinia pseudoacacia --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. See the comments with the previous two samples directly above (this piece is from the same vendor, Mark Peet)


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


both sides of a sample plank of black locust root / Robinia pseudoacacia --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. I believe this is from the same root as the two samples directly above but whether it is or not, the same comments apply to this sample as to those two.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above



both sides and both ends of a black locust sample piece


end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


black locust sample plank and end grain


end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a black locust sample plank


end grain and end grain closeup of the sample plank directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


black locust plank and end grain. This plank was donated to the site by Ira Matheny, whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain closeup of the piece directly above --- the color is a little more washed out than is actually the case in the wood.


one side, the end grain, and the end grain closeup of a small piece of black locust


black locust planks and a closeup --- the color of the wood is slightly more yellow and less orange than this pic shows, and the wood has just a hint of green tint as well. The pics directly below of a smaller piece, cut from this one, are much more accurate.


small plank, cut from the larger on above and sanded for the pic, and an end grain shot. The colors are very accurate.


end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


black locust planks


black locust planks and a closeup


I had read that black locust is one of those woods that fluoresces under black light, so I tried it out and boy howdy, it sure does.


a 50 year old fence post of black locust --- HUGE enlargements are present. This was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. Mark let me cut off and process 6" off of one end and as you can see the inside of the post, which had been in the ground for 50 years, looks just like new black locust except that it is a bit washed out rather than the more saturated color of new pieces.


the sample piece processed from the black locust fence post shown directly above


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

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A very peculiar piece of black locust


this piece was sent to me by Barry Richardson for ID. It was the topic of some discussion on the Wood Barter forum because it so clearly appeared to be aged (and thus dark colored) black locust but was WAY too heavy (about 67lbs/cuft) to be that. After looking at the end grain I was even more convinced that it was black locust, but the weight still bothered me. Then my friend Mark Peet reminded me (DOH !) that black locust is VERY obvious in UV light so I checked it and sure enough, there is no possible doubt that this is black locust. How it got so heavy, I cannot explain.



end grains and the end grain closeups of both ends. This was fine sanded by Barry. I'm not sure to what grit but the anatomy is quite clearly shown, as you can see in the enlargements.


three different face grain closeups that were taken before it did the UV analysis and was still trying to figure out for sure if this was black locust.


the UV light shot that shows clearly that this is black locust


two views of a vase that Barry turned from a wormy crotch section of the same log of extra heavy/dense black locust

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The Wood Book pics


flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia, also listed as yellow locust, and just "locust") from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are present for all 3 views

web pics:

log ends --- note that the second one is freshly cut (thus the yellowish color, although I do think there's some photographic influence as well) and the 3rd one is well seasoned (thus the orangish color)

LATER NOTE: Observant viewer Mike Caruso has pointed out to me that the second one, the greenish one, does NOT actually look like black locust and he is obviously correct. If you look closely at the enlargement you can see that the growth rings are full of dendritic pore groups, which means it certainly isn't black locust and amost certainly IS buckthorn.


slab


plank listed as black locust / Robinia pseudocacia and with wet and dry sections


flat cut and quartersawn planks of "robin" which is another common name for black locust


flat cut plank listed as "white" locust (just another name for the same species as the common name "black" locust)


flat cut black locust planks


quartersawn black locust planks


planks all from the same vendor


planks listed as black locust / Robinia pseudacacia


plank listed as robinia / Robinia pseudoacacia


although this piece was listed as black locust, I do not believe either the color OR the grain. This is the kind of nonsense you find on the internet.


planks, all from the same vendor and all listed as acacia / Robinia pseudoacacia. These are either incorrectly identified or else they are indeed Robinia pseudoacacia and are showing a considerable darkening due to age.


black locust crotch plank


end grain


black locust turning stock


end grain pen blanks


black locust turning stock listed as unseasoned


three views of a freshly sawn black locust plank, submitted by a correspondent named Jeff, whom I thank. Both levels of enlargement are present for all 3 pics, and on the last one the enlargements clearly show some ray flakes. Jeff tells me the color is accurate, which is a little weird since I thought that normally black locust is yellowish when freshly cut and turns more orange/brownish with age.


black locust scales



curly scales with the bottom 3 showing some nice ray flakes in addition to the curl.


very flaky quartersawn scales


listed as black locust veneer but looks to me exactly like red elm


black locust bowl blanks


black locust bowl blanks that have been waxed


waxed bowl blank --- might just be the wax or an interesting color variation, but this looks to me more like honey locust than black locust


bowl blanks


black locust turning square and end grain


black locust bottle stopper blanks (these are actually quite small)


black locust pen blanks that have been moistened


duck call blanks


black locust burl scales


both sides of a set of turning blocks listed as Robinia pseudoacacia burl


black locust burls


two views of a black locust burl --- bright yellow is probably bad photography, not the wood


black locust slab with burl


burl cap and the opened side


veneer --- not sure if this is flat cut or rotary cut


listed as "steamed" veneer, obviously flat cut


wormy black locust turned to a toadstool (decorative object)


war club and closeup listed as black locust burl --- very clever use of a burl, I think.


black locust burl vase and a natural edge burl bowl


vessel


wormy vase


bowl still on the lathe


black locust bowls


black locust bowl still on the lathe --- this one's going to be gorgeous when done


black locust bowls turned and photographed by Tom Pleatman, whom I thank for these pics and other contributions to the site. Big enlargements are present.


pen turned from black locust / Robinia pseudoacacia. Photograph contributed to the site by the pen turner, Bruce Selyem, whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The pen is finished with shellwax. This pen was turned from a branch segment and it's not clear whether the part that is visible in this pic is all heartwood or all sapwood.


this is the remainder of the branch from which Bruce turned the pen directly above