Is all black locust good outside, or just the heartwood?

[Wade Lippman]

I have found this on CL. Since the boards are two colors, I figure they are part heartwood and part sapwood. Will it all weather well? I want them for a raised bed garden.

[Andy Giddings]

I thought it was all good - seen plenty of photos of black locust used as support poles just driven into the soil and it lasts for years. Lumber yards don't differentiate between heart and sap on the items I've seen for sale

[John K Jordan]

I have found this on CL. Since the boards are two colors, I figure they are part heartwood and part sapwood. Will it all weather well? I want them for a raised bed garden.

Should be fine. I cut black locust timbers on my sawmill for raised garden beds and they've been in the ground for nearly 10 years. I just cut what I could get from the log and didn't pay any attention to sapwood or heartwood.

JKJ

[Lee Schierer]

My grand parents used split black locust for fence posts and they would last for years and years. I saw no difference in life between the heartwood and softwood.

[Danny Hamsley]

Black locust is unusual in that it only has one or two annual rings of sapwood. That is one way to ID it in log form. Since there is so little sapwood in black locust, its effect is insignificant, so, you are good to go.

[David Winer]

I have found this on CL. Since the boards are two colors, I figure they are part heartwood and part sapwood. Will it all weather well? I want them for a raised bed garden.

I built a wood storage shed 35 years ago using 4x4 locusts posts straight from the sawmill. I had had a log sawn up without concern for sapwood/heartwood. The posts are still intact.

That stuff is HARD. While trimming the planted posts to height, sparks flew from the chainsaw.