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Splitting a Locust Log: From Windfall Tree to Fence Posts

Published May 30, 2020

I, Bernie Harberts, did not use generative AI to write or illustrate this article. Spell check and grammar check, yes. AI, no.

Today’s post was going to be about setting the first locust posts in the pasture I’m building for our mules and horse….until I ran out of posts. So, back up the mountain I went in pursuit of locust. I found such a beauty, and was taken by how much life it contained, that I wanted to show you some photos of how a log become posts.

A large windfall locust log on the forest floor, home to plants and animals — Queen of the Wind Fall Locust Jungle: she showed me how many plants and animals rely on these old logs.

Life on a Locust Log

The best locust on the farm grows on the ridge behind our house. It’s old growth forest, a mix of red and white oak, chestnut oak, red maple and some tulip poplar in the upper reaches of the coves.

View toward the Harberts farm from Blowing Rock, North Carolina — View toward our farm from Blowing Rock, North Carolina. We live about 30 minutes away, about 8 o’clock in the photo above.

The forest on our farm is considered the 4th Forest. That is, this is the fourth time the timber has been cut since the East Coast was settled by Europeans. The early harvest, at first the first 2, part of the third was done with oxen, mules and horses. The mature trees were felled and the smaller ones were left to grow.

That ended when the era of mechanized timber started. Instead of hooves, it was treads that entered the forest. Treads of logging skidders, tractors and bulldozers. Now, instead of small patch cuts, whole mountainsides were harvested, in many cases, each and every merchantable tree on site.

This dramatically changed the mix of trees that grew back. Young trees that loved shade, like were disadvantaged. Light loving trees, like tulip poplars, thrived.

So did locust.

Locust is considered a pioneer species. That is, it is one of the first trees to grown back when the land is cleared.

So the last time the mountain behind our house was logged, probably around 1900, thousands of locust trees sprouted from seeds that lay dormant on the forest floor. In time, many decades later, they were outcompeted by the succession species, hardwoods like white and chestnut oak.

Most of these locust died when they were small. Some, outraced the competition to the sky. A very few, only a few per acre, survived to be 100 years old.

So it was with great respect that I fired up my chain saw and cut in to this beauty. It had been lying on the forest floor about 5 years. I was amazed how quickly the forest had moved to reclaim it, especially the bark layer. Luckily, locust wood is incredibly rot resistant. That’s why it’s so sought after for posts by some.

Here are some photos I thought you’d enjoy of Life on a Locust Log.

Life On a Locust Log

Forest clearing up the mountain where Bernie Harberts found the locust tree he harvested for posts — Up the mountain, the clearing where I found the locust tree I wanted to use as posts.

An eighteen-inch-wide section of windfall locust log — This section of log was just under 18″ wide. The butt log, the one attached to the roots, was larger. This is the second log.

Moss growing on the bark of a fallen locust log — Moss bed.

Red maple shoots growing next to a pile of hickory nut shells near the locust log — The next forest: red maple shoots next to hickory nut shells. The shells look like they were piled here by a squirrel.

Bernie Harberts sawing a windfall locust log with a chainsaw — Now it’s time to get sawing.

A locust log with a tow strap attached and bark peeled away — I tied a yellow tow strap around the log so I could tow it to the road after I sawed it loose from the rest of the tree. When I slipped the bark off, I discovered…

A carpenter ant colony living under the bark of a locust log — …a big colony of carpenter ants that called the log home. I gave them plenty of time…

Carpenter ants moving their eggs and larva to safety after their locust log home was disturbed — …to move their eggs and larva to safety. After I slipped the bark off the old log, I piled it up on the ground. I’m hoping the ants took advantage. If not, I’m figuring they moved on to the next section of the tree that I left in the woods.

A slug moving across the freshly cut locust log — Even the fast life moves quickly out here. This slug moved on to the log while I piled up the bark for the ants.

From Log to Posts

I’ve written before how I split locust posts and rails out of a locust log. Still, this one was so pretty and straight I just had to make a few photos. Locust is known to be incredibly cantankerous to split with a maul and wedges so I appreciate a straight-grained one when I find it.

First wedge placed in a natural crack of a straight-grained locust log — I place the first wedge in a natural crack.

Multiple wedges driven along the length of a splitting locust log — Then I just keep adding wedges.

Two steel wedges stuck in a stubborn locust log — I only had 4 steel wedges with me. When all four of them got stuck in the log, it was time to break out an old time technique. I fired up my chainsaw and…

Cutting a makeshift wooden wedge from locust with a Stihl 044 chainsaw — …cut a wedge-shaped piece of wood from a piece of locust nearby.

A large hand-cut locust wedge used as a fifth splitting wedge — That became my 5th wedge.

A locust log split cleanly into two halves — And the log splits in two halves.

Ten finished locust fence posts split from a single windfall log — An hour later, the whole log is split in to 10 posts. I brought my locust wedges off the mountain. They make great firewood.

A harvested locust log on the ground next to a young locust tree growing nearby — And the cycle continues. On the ground, the locust log I harvested. The leaves above the log in the center of the photo belong to a young locust tree. In 100 years, the cycle will be repeated.

Bernie Harberts and Julia Carpenter riding mules at Moses Cone Park, Boone, North Carolina — Okay. It wasn’t all sweat and toil. Julia and I managed to squeeze in a ride at Moses Cone park. (Boone, NC)

Whew. Now I can get back to building that locust fence.

More Locust

If you’re as hardcore a fan of locust as I am, check out these other projects I’ve used it for:

More about life up Shoe Box Canyon: Around the Homestead.

More projects at Built and Grown by Hand.

More about what Julia and I have built and grown on the homestead.

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