Nasty honey locust

[BowEd]

I was out taking pictures of a black cherry bow against black cherry trees that I tillered down to a more comfortable draw weight for myself and along the way I took a picture of just how nasty these honey locust can get.Clusters around the trunk amoondo.Some of the thorns are a foot long.Most are 6" long.
If a person gets one of the spores from one of these thorns under their skin it festers very quickly swelling up.Nasty stuff.
A bow can be made from it.Pretty salmon colored heartwood with thicker sapwood than black locust.About 25% wider than a black locust.

[PaulN/KS]

Yep, nasty things. The wife had a flat last week that turned out to be a locust thorn.
I was out walking an old fenceline about 15 years ago and got tangled up in some old wire and fell forward. Drove a thorn into my left hand and almost out the top. Pulled it out,(guy I was with almost threw up... ) and I drove to the emergency room. Hand was swelled up twice normal in the 1/2 hour, or so, that it took to get to town.

[BowEd]

You ai'nt a kiddin Paul.I got one into my knee cap once from keeling onto the ground.Swelled up very quickly with a fair amount of pain to boot.
I had one go through a gum boot into my foot once too.
Through your hand......yikes that had to hurt.Did they give you antibiotics?If so what was it?Maybe chephalexin?

[Hawkdancer]

Ok, Honey Locust has nasty thorns, Black locust doesn't have thorns, or much smaller thorns?  I didn't take Dendrology in college, and haven't been in the Midwest forests very much!  That is a nasty looking tree, Ed!
Hawkdancer

[osage outlaw]

Ed. Those are nasty trees for sure.  We have a few on our place.  I read somewhere that they only have thorns for about 15' up the tree.  It was a defense for prehistoric animals that used to feed on them.  The animals are long extinct but I guess the trees don't know that.

[HH~]

I like chewing on the sticky bean pods!

HH~

[BowEd]

On some the limbs themselves way up in the tree are clustered up with thorns not just up the trunk a ways.Needless to say we never treed very many coon in trees like this but did occasionally.I always worried about the dogs up on the tree treeing getting cut up with their front feet.
Our deer love the pods too.They spread this tree all over the place.
Every year I slash with corn knife and burn with tordon many around here.

[BowEd]

Hawk...Our black locust here does'nt have the thorns.Male or female.It's better bow wood too.
There are honey locust trees without thorns though too.I believe those are males.Females got the pods and thorns.Big thorny ones go though the wood stove over here.Good fire wood.

[PaulN/KS]

You ai'nt a kiddin Paul.I got one into my knee cap once from keeling onto the ground.Swelled up very quickly with a fair amount of pain to boot.
I had one go through a gum boot into my foot once too.
Through your hand......yikes that had to hurt.Did they give you antibiotics?If so what was it?Maybe chephalexin?

They gave me a tetnus shot and another shot of some kind of antibiotic,(think that was in a square needle.. ) plus pills. Puncture wounds can be troublesome, both to clean and keep from infection, so the extra antibiotics were likely because of that. I was lucky in that the thorn slipped between anything vital in my hand like nerves or tendons. Can't hardly see a scar ...

[Eric Krewson]

The thorns up close;

[JW_Halverson]

Let's say this is a tree even tree huggers don't like!

[BowEd]

Good close up pic.They are nasty!!!!!
I like the color of the heartwood though.Made a nice coffee table out of some of it once.A salmon color with sometimes different colors streaked through it like gray etc.

[Deerhunter21]

used to get paid to cut them down for a farmer i know. never got bad pricks but they still hurt. especially the small ones that you have to go through the branches to cut them down.

[PaulN/KS]

I found one on my place that was straight(ish) and had a lot less of the thorns. I cut it down and split some staves out but havn't tried to make a bow from it yet.
I think that there are some arrows in the Encyclopedia of Native American Bows, Arrows and Quivers that have thorn points?

[Deerhunter21]

I found one on my place that was straight(ish) and had a lot less of the thorns. I cut it down and split some staves out but havn't tried to make a bow from it yet.
I think that there are some arrows in the Encyclopedia of Native American Bows, Arrows and Quivers that have thorn points?

yup, used to make them all the time. kinda like BJs Rivercane nail arrows. I split the wood or cane the tiniet bit and drill or create a hollow area for me to insert the thorn. i smooth the thorn down at the big side so it stops tapering for about an inch. insert it (glue it in if you want but not necisary) and wrap the split with sinew to clamp down on the thorn then taper the tip into the taper of the thorn.