Need a sawmill near Atlanta, GA for a 55 inch Oak to cut into boards

[Art Douglas]

I have some property with a great 55 inch White Oak that we have to take down, but I'd like to cut it into wood floors if possible. If I'm correctly informed, a portable sawmill won't take a tree that big. Does anyone know of a sawmill near Atlanta that would take soemthing from an individual? I'm hoping to find a place that specializes in large, old growth trees for flooring (or some other use that can be recommended). Any thoughts?

[Scott Banbury]

What you want is quartersawn and a Woodmizer or equivalent band mill can do this easily following this approach . . .

http://www.scottbanbury.com/quartersawing.html

[Rob Russell]

Art,

I'd say that it'd be a real shame to cut a 55" white oak into strip flooring.

You could mill that into really wide, quartersawn oak boards that you could sell for enough to buy q/s white oak flooring and still have money left over.

Quartersawing yields much narrower boards than flatsawing and to be able to get some 20" or larger quartersawn white oak boards ... wood that like is rare.

JMO.

Rob

[Art Douglas]

Thanks to both of you for your input, I'm ignorant to wood cutting practices so I appreciate the insight. Do either of you know someone I can find to come do this? And once it's done, where to sell the boards?

[Dick Strauss]

Art,
Have you looked at Woodweb's Sawyers page? Try this link and scroll down to Georgia (or use -edit-find):

http://www.woodweb.com/Resources/RSSDGsawyers.html

There are a dozen sawyers listed for Georgia. Show us some pics of how you make out with the sawing.

Check this list as well...

http://www.harvestingurbantimber.com/classifieds/mills.html


Good luck,
Dick

[Rob Russell]

Thanks to both of you for your input, I'm ignorant to wood cutting practices so I appreciate the insight. Do either of you know someone I can find to come do this? And once it's done, where to sell the boards?

Art,

In terms of selling the boards, you've got a couple of choices - green, air-dried or kilk-dried. Most people who would want those are going to want kiln dried. I'd think that finding someone with a kiln and paying for the drying is your first step - and an upfront investment.

Selling it - you could try selling some to a local specialty lumber dealer - they aren't likely to get stock that wide from their wholesalers. You might be able to barter some of it for stock.

You can also run an ad in your local paper.

If you get some really wide boards - like 20" - with good quartersawn figure on them, I wouldn't be surprised if stuff like that went for more than $20/bd ft. I just checked with our local specialty wood supplier and they have never even seen 15" wide quartersawn white oak. They said that wood like that would be as pricey as teak which is $21/bd ft.

If you get a few nice 20" wide quartersawn boards right out of the middle of the tree and save the book-matched sets - I'll bet you could get some really serious money for those from the right buyer. Imagine what some specialty furniture maker might pay for a pair of boards that could make a 48" (or close) dining room table from a pair of bookmatched boards. You could be looking at $25-$30/ft for stuff like that. The problem becomes finding the buyer.

You've got the potential for some really, really rare wood there.

That's why I said it'd be a shame to slice it up into flooring.

Rob

[Scott Banbury]

Art,
I just checked with our local specialty wood supplier and they have never even seen 15" wide quartersawn white oak. They said that wood like that would be as pricey as teak which is $21/bd ft.
Rob

Dang, I just sold a bunch of 15" QSWO for $4/bdft and that's better than market. I wish I had a retail store--they're the ones that seem to make all the jack in this lumber business :o

[Rob Russell]

Dang, I just sold a bunch of 15" QSWO for $4/bdft and that's better than market. I wish I had a retail store--they're the ones that seem to make all the jack in this lumber business :o

So ship me up a load - I'll see what we can get for it!

Quartersawn W/O is $5.75/bd ft up here, and that's gonna be stuff in the 6-7-8" range.

[Ian Abraham]

a portable sawmill won't take a tree that big

That size log will need to be split with chainsaw to fit on a Woodmizer or similar mill. Hard work :( But worth it if you can get nice wide boards out of it.
A big commercial mill wont want to know because the log will be too big for their equipment and the risk of embedded metal damaging expensive blades.
Look for someone with a Peterson or Lucas swingblade portable mill. They will be able to set their mill up over the log where it is laying, and quarter saw it too ;) They cut differently to a band saw, but I could pull some 16" qsawn boards from a log like that, and plenty of nice 8" ones.

Cheers

Ian