Honey Locust?

[HighEagle]

I chased a ring on this HL, have you seen this before in other woods? Looks like some kind compression knot, or something
TOP [imghttp://][/img]
 BELLY [imghttp://[/URL
[/

Just wondering what it is, You think its sound? I know what adb will say" burn it".  . had one other pic of the profile but it would not load Thanks Chuck

[Dean Marlow]

I wouldn't trust it. But I guess you really won't know until you get it down to bending ? Dean

[DarkSoul]

Looks suspicious. I have no idea what caused it, but I would leave that area a bit stiffer. Should look very nice, once finished, with this grain pattern.

[Hrothgar]

Looks like it might have gotten bent over when it was younger I don't think I would trust it.

[mwosborn]

Looks scary to me - but what the heck start tillering and see what happens.

[adb]

I'd try and eliminate that with the design.

[Josh B]

That section of wood is toast.  It has no remaining  structural integrity in tension or compression.  You can see the fibers are broken on the back and crushed on the belly.  It will be that way all the way through that part of the wood.  That had to be done with something hard edged and square.  Maybe a railroad spike driven into the tree for a step.  It looks like it was roughed out, heated up and then clamped in a vice or torqued on with a big crescent wrench.  I've found alot of weird stuff in trees, but I think you found a dandy there.   That is really weird!  If you have more staves from this tree, you might look for similar damage in them.  If it was something driven into the tree for steps there will probably be more damaged wood.  Either way, I wouldn't even leave that section in a stiff handle.  Just my .02.  Josh

Edit- disregard the step theory.  Now that I think about it, the angle is wrong for that.  The spikes would be straight in, not side ways.   More importantly, unless this was a thornless sunburst honey locust, who in there right mind would hang a stand in a honey locust?!?

[Pat B]

Are you sure that isn't black locust? I've never seen honey locust wood but it sure looks like BL to me. I've also seen similar odd grain like that on BL but smaller areas.

[Josh B]

Pat have you ever made anything out of a piece with that goofy grain?   I've never seen anything like it.  If it grew that way maybe it is sound.  I don't know.
Chuck was there a split in the growth rings there?  Like a laminar separation?   If I knew nothing about the stave and didn't know it was in the tree that way, I would immediately guess it was done after the stave was roughed in.   Was there bark damage?   Sorry bout all the questions, but I'm more than a little intrigued as to what causes that.   Josh

[Badger]

  I would chase a ring on the belly opposite that sot and see what it looks like, locust is really hard to view the rings on from the side but I would try that to. If it really is honey locust it will not tolerate much of anythng, just barely tolerates becomming a bow.

[HighEagle]

The pic I posted was a belly split. I have the outer with the bark on very old and dry.
 Pat I do think its BL always thought we only had HL  i'm glad its BL, I've had this wood over 20 years this is the last of it. When I salvaged it, I live in Oregon cowboy in Hell's Canyon it was in a fence post pile covered with blackberry briers. It could have been there for who knows how long.
  Gun Doc I was refitting all the splits back together tonight, I can post more pix here if folks want or PM you with more,

Chuck 

[Pappy]

It's probably BL if it was a fence post,HL won't tolerate being out in the weather like that for a long period of time,may be something to do with the fence it had on it at one time.  If it's BL it should be hard as a rock.
  Pappy

[JonW]

I have an Osage bow with a spot like that on it. Holding ok but I don't shoot it much either.

[Eric Krewson]

Same here on osage, found one stave with this type of anomaly, made a bow out of it with no problems.

[huisme]

I agree that it looks like black locust. I had one stave with something like this where something was driven into the tree and that stave started to give out on me during floor tillering, so it was cut short and made a decent short bow.