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A friend of mine here near Cleveland is having professionals cut down a Black Walnut tree down in his back yard. I beleive it is a decent size but have not seen it.
3 questions.... 1) is it worth him have them cut it down and then try to sell the wood for someone else to saw and dry?
2) If so, what size logs should he ask the tree peopel to cut the tree into?]
3) how should he price it?
Thanks for any and all advice
I would personally cut the main trunk into 8'-10' pieces for milling. raw log prices aren't too good right now due to the low demand. I have heard of people selling walnut logs to the mills for less than 40 cents per board foot, and that is if YOU deliver it to them. Your best bet is to get them milled, air dry them, then sell them. This is about the only way you'll actually turn a profit. Otherwise you are better off offering the tree for free to whoever will come and cut it down for you.
thanks. thouhgt it may be worth something.
Matt,
There is a lot of potential value to the tree, but pretty much only for the end user, and for the potential to be realized a lot of time and effort has to be put in. Most sawyers wouldn't want to come out for one tree unless they believed it was maybe a prime veneer candidate; if someone brought them the logs they'd cut them to specification, though. Likewise, local tree guys might tell you how much they'd charge for cutting down and removing the tree but would likely laugh if you asked them to give you money for the tree.
Once the logs are cut into lumber they still have to be stacked and stickered carefully in order to produce quality lumber; kiln drying would be an additional expense, air drying would take time and patience.
Many years ago and far far away, My friend, a coworker, brought me a short piece of 2 inch thick black walnut. It was a piece he had cut off of a pickup truck load of walnut given to him by a guy who had torn down an old farm house on the coworker's route home from work. The house was around 150 years old and had been timber framed of walnut because that was readily available in the area of Northwestern Ohio where and when it was built. My friend was driving by when he thought he reconized the pile of wood as walnut and stopped to ask what the guy was going to do with it. The guy said he intended to burn it. My friend said he might be interested in buying some of it, and the guy said it wasn't for sale, but that my friend was welcome to all he could load into his truck. The next day there was nothing left of the pile of wasnut but ash. I have often wondered what that pile might have been worth. It is beautiful stuff with an oil finish and is a joy to carve.
Russ Hauser
Tavares, FL
Making and drying boards for one tree is not very feasible (economically or otherwise) unless you own a sawmill yourself (and not really even then). The best thing you could do with it is sell it to turners. Take your profits from that and buy kiln dried walnut boards if that is what you want. You will come out ahead in the long run.
Matt,
i Have a brother on th East side (Kirtland) that has quite a few logs milled into lumber.
He might be interested depending how far away they are and the price.
Tough economy that professionals are cutting trees.
Was it Doctors Lawyers Teachers Lifeguards what?
I have a sawmill and cut lumber. Yard trees are notorious for containing metal. Many sawyers will not saw yard trees unless you pay for any bamaged blades and time lost from hitting metal.
Is a bamaged blade one that Obama damaged?:)
That is where you buy one for yourself, then buy one for the indigent sawmiller just down the road :).Quote:
Originally Posted by george wilson
That's the sound it makes as the blade hits the metal and your wallet.Quote:
Originally Posted by george wilson
Been there. Done that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Danny Hamsley
It was a huge cherry log that my co-nut-case and I couldn't resist taking the chance on. We lost the gamble, paid the sawyer, and ended with a goodly amount of wood anyway.
The WoodMiser operator we use charges $0.15/bf and $7/blade. Use a metal detector and cut out and nails/spikes/wires and it's still not real expensive. But I would try and unearth as much of the tap root as possible, there's some really figured "burl-like" wood in there, and walnuts are known to have a fairly large root - sometimes 1/2 as deep as the trunk is tall, and often bigger in diameter.
my daughters just sold 12 walnut logs for $1k off the farm, I was in the neighborhood one day and stopped by the farm to check on it, saw the loggers doing there thing and called my daughter first to inquire if she had given permission to log. LOL good thing I called her first before confronting the loggers, the logger is the Sheriff of that Iowa County.
Ryan, I have to disagree with your theory. Last summer, I had the opportunity to have a walnut tree milled into lumber. It was actually two trees that had been cut down on the school grounds where my wife worked in the business office. It cost me a total of around $400 to get the trees from log form to lumber form. That is including the sawyer fee, some supplies for stacking and end waxing and paying two helpers for the process. After calculating how much board feet I had, I ended up with Around $1,400.00 worth of nice walnut lumber. A nice $1,000.00 difference. I would say that that is significant.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan Baker
I have cut up quite a number of "yard" trees over the past few years. Yes, my sawyer(s) has hit loads of nails, fence staples, shotgun BB's, copper pipes, you name it. I always warn him where I got the trees from and tell him up front that I'll work with him if he wrecks blades. I have no doubt that I'm still coming out ahead in lumber value. The only exception would be if you're milling white oak. Iron stains it purple/black and one small nail can stain many board feet of lumber so you take your chances if you mill that species. Otherwise, I would say mill that tree and enjoy your lumber.
David,
$.15/bd-ft is a very very good rate to have a log sawn. Most sawyers charge a minimum of $.25, and many charge $.35.
Be nice to that sawyer!
Yard trees can make some fine lumber, even with the metal issues. However, there is a myth about yard tree value. Many people hear about the $25,000 walnut tree that someone sold, and they think then that their yard tree walnut must be worth that much too. Well, that is not true, and it makes for some disappointed landowners who find that they have to actually have to pay someone to take down that 12" walnut tree just outside their bedroom window :(.