locust for the deck?

[helmuth]

Dear members,
did anyone use black or yellow locust strips for laying a deck instead of teak?
regards
Helmuth

[Bob Cleek]

Probably. It seems like a good choice, if you can find it in suitable lengths.

[ssor]

Locust is hellishly stiff and heavy. It would probably work but the stuff just doesn't make long straight boards.

[kc8pql]

Originally posted by ssor:
Locust is hellishly stiff and heavy. If I was going to use it I'd lay it straight fore and aft rather than trying to bend it.

[uncas]

Locust...a great idea if it behaved...Awful tough to work with..Even making fence posts which is not much of a chore...is tough...

[trull]

Abeking & Rasmussen used Locust occasionally for some of the housesides on the Concordia yawls as well as for toe rails. I don't know if Locust grown in Germany is different, but as everyone says, it is not the easiest wood to bend.

[OEX]

I am making my covering boards with it right now (black locust). If you find the right batch of stock it will be straight and predictable. I would suggest milling boards and letting them sit for a month, it will move a bit then once its done it will not move again. I do not find it hard to work with or bend (it steams very well). Locust grows as a clone; so when you find a straight batch, get more, as you need it from that same area. A Maine fisherman told me last week that the old guys called these groves of locust pole locust or shaft locust---they used it for wharfs, etc and boats---best for straight grain.

Cheers, Bruce

[seo]

Locust is awfully heavy stuff. Some very good workers who worked on a job that used it to make backbone parts for a 90' sloop built in Maine expressed doubt about whether the glue joints would hold.
For what it's worth, my favorite deck to live with was on the schooner Appledore. Her deck was laid and caulked Alaskan Yellow Cedar. I've surveyed S&S/Nevins boats that had laid white cedar decks that were 50+ years old, and working.
Particularly if I was going to glue wood strips down on top of a plywood substrate (as opposed to a laid and caulked deck) I would worry about the wood gluing well and also about its wet/dry dimensions.
On a small yacht the hardness of the deck wood isn't all that big a deal. You're not dragging around heavy gear on it, or using it day-in-day-out.
As far as footing goes, I never noticed a huge difference between the Westward's teak deck and the Appledore's Cedar. Neither is as good as FRP (either dynel or glass and epoxy or polyester) finished correctly, or molded glass with inlaid anti-skid, or steel finished off with random handfuls of Black Beauty cast upon the wet paint.
seo

[ssor]

I made some blocks from locust and glued them with epoxy, didn't fasten them otherwise, they broke the glue line in about a year out in the weather. No wood tore out, just broke the glue.