What should I reccomend to a friend who has trees to cut down?

[Pete Lamberty]

I have an acquaintance who has asked me for my advice. He has property with a good amount of old trees. He needs to cut down a few of them, oak, maple and something else. Some are more than two feet in diameter. He also has a close friend who has a tree service and this man will be cutting down an extremely large number of trees. He does work for the state and the state is putting in an extenstion to a highway. This man has the contract to clear all of the trees. Evidently many large old trees of various types. The guy I know has just used what he could for firewood and left the rest to rot. But the man with the tree service will just chip them up and or haul them to a land fill. When he told me all of this I told him how I wish I had the time/ability to mill the logs for furniture. I told him how some of you get wood-mizers and dry the wood to use later. He then asked me if it were possible to sell the logs for this purpose. I told him about a sawmill west of Chicago that might be interested, but other than that I don't have a clue as to how to or who to contact to see if this is possible. So I figured that some of you may have some ideas about what to advise him. This is just west of Chicago. Has anyone ever sold logs to a sawmill? I know they generally stay away from trees that have been in peoples yards. I believe they feel that there may be metal in the logs. But where do sawmills get their logs from? Thanks for any advice that you might have.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Most sawmills get their logs by the truckload from forests. As you said, most sawmills will not saw up one or two logs for you. Just too much risk to their equipment.

[Dan Forman]

There are some outfits who will process local trees like this. Look in the yellow pages under sawmills or lumber yards, and start calling around. Don't know where you are from, but there is one in Oregon which utilizes "urban timber", I would think there would be others. Worth a little digging anyway.

Dan

[Pete Lamberty]

We are located in the western suburbs of Chicago.

[Dan Forman]

Guess I was sped reding :D

I wouldn't be surprised if there was someone in your area who would take this wood. If you do the detective work, maybe you could get a sweet deal on the wood.

Dan

[Lars Thomas]

Try Kirkland Saw Mill in Kirkland (that may be the one you referred to in your msg). Lars

[Gary Breckenridge]

Spend some time in the yellow pages. Making lumber is a difficult process but it can be very worthwhile.;)

[bill walton]

look for the woodmizer website. There you can look for an operator by zip code or other search patterns. I ws able to find one close to my place for a very small project. He made time for me in the midst of milling many, many fallen trees from last years Florida hurricanes.