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12/11/10, 08:50 AM
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Cactus Farmer/Cat Rancher
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Central Wisconsin
Posts: 1,974
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My friend called me a retard
Jokingly of course  I cut down a couple of dead walnut trees on my property for firewood. He told me I would have been better of selling the wood since it is worth a lot of money. The one tree was big enough for a 10 foot log about 14 inches in diameter. The trees are really solid, not punky at all. Is he right?
I'll say one thing though that walnut sure burns nice though 
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12/11/10, 09:22 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Florida
Posts: 4,481
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Yes, he was right.
You probably burned a thousand dollars or so.
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12/11/10, 09:32 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Eastern Washington
Posts: 437
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The real money is in the stumps and root burls. There should be some nice figuring for gun stocks and smaller furniture, or even peeled for veneer. Tell him that was your plan all along.
__________________
The best of men is only a man at best.
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12/11/10, 09:48 AM
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Dallas
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Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: N of Dallas, TX
Posts: 10,119
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Yup, you did kinda blow that one.
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12/11/10, 10:14 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Western WI
Posts: 226
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Even small chunks well dried are usable for lathe work. I've made several gavels & other small turnings from pieces that a lot of people would toss.
A log 10 in. x14 ft. correctly sawed to 1 in.& kiln dried would buy a lot of good firewood.
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12/11/10, 10:16 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 5,201
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I dunno, maybe if you could find a buyer for individual trees.... But most want a truckload, and straight veneer quality. Perhaps a local bandsaw mill would want them, but then he would have his trucking, sawing, and drying costs involved. Then he would have to have craftsmen, furniture makers, artisans coming to his place regularly to buy pieces... So, if he would offer you much more than cordwood prices, I kinda doubt it. Just my own opinion.
geo
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12/11/10, 10:35 AM
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Original recipe!
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: NC foothills
Posts: 13,984
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Walnut does burn nicely and I really like the sweet smell of the smoke from the walnut oils.
You done good.
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12/11/10, 10:40 AM
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hating the 'burbs!
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: N. IL, wishing I was in W WA
Posts: 1,044
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As a woodworker, I just about cried when I read this...
__________________
I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.
The Cloud
Percy Bysshe Shelley
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12/11/10, 10:55 AM
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Original recipe!
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: NC foothills
Posts: 13,984
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But woodworkers are so hard to find!
I would much rather have the useable parts get used for something beautiful, but so often it can't happen.
We are getting ready to take down two chestnuts (horrible, horrible trees) and we hope to use the lengths for cabinetry, but the rest we have to burn...
We are sorry. If you lived closer we would let you pick through all of our stuff first.
And the past two years we burned primarily cedar. It broke my heart to put the beautiful heart of cedar in the fire, but it is what the tree company dumped in our yeard. (cheaper to dump stuff here than paying to take it to the dump, lucky us)
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12/11/10, 11:00 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Central IL
Posts: 1,700
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This thread made me think of the Bryan Bowers song Bad Boy:
Bad Boy was headed for work, though it wasn't where he wanted to be.
He was takin’ a little shortcut when he saw that money tree.
Bad Boy braked to a halt and dug in his pockets for change,
Then he called in sick, and told the boss that the flu had him doubled in pain.
Bad Boy looked that tree up and down, then went up and rang the bell,
Swore to the lady at the door if the tree fell it'd be hell.
Bad Boy told her 'it's dangerous, but you're lucky that I'm so nice,
'Cause I'll cut it down for you cheap,' and then he doubled the normal price.
Bad Boy cut that tree on down, told the lady 'It's no good to burn.'
Said, for an extra hundred it'd be gone when she returned.
Bad Boy took that walnut tree in eight foot lengths to the mill.
He cut it up, and sold it all, and he's laughin' about it still.
(chorus)
Oh, Bad Boy, you are bad!
You're so low down that you'd lie to old ladies!
Oh, Bad Boy, you are bad!
There's sunlight on the grass where for years it was shady.
PhilJohnson, It's like anything else, you do what you want to with what's yours. No explaining required!
Last edited by SueMc; 12/11/10 at 11:09 AM.
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12/11/10, 11:11 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: EastTN: Former State of Franklin
Posts: 4,482
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Not all walnut is "gold".....
The 14", which end ? If it's the butt end, ( stump end ), that's not much of a log.
Did it grow in a fence row ? May be full of metal....most sawyer's won't touch it.
Lot of side branches ? Low quality wood.
Just because it's walnut doesn't make it valuable....I've cut plenty of them up for firewood because they simply weren't worth sawing for lumber....and I have my own mill.
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12/11/10, 11:38 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Korea---but from Missouri
Posts: 829
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14"? Deadwood? Yard Trees? Sounds like firewood to me. You didn't loose anything. Those high dollar trees you hear about grew real slow inside of a dense woodlot (tight rings) and the really high dollar trees may have experience many floods, droughts, and perhaps disease and in doing so, making nice figure in the wood grain. Also they are sinificantly bigger--you could grow one of those really high dollar trees if you got about 80 years.
Also if these were yard trees, 99.99% of mills will not take them as fence, nails, etc are hard on blades and dangerous to workers. Sometime you can get a small time band saw operator to cut these for his or your use. By the time you get rid of 4-5 inc of sap wood and bark, the firewood option is much better IMHO.
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12/11/10, 11:41 AM
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Lake Station
Posts: 14,761
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as a forester, I about cried too....
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12/11/10, 11:45 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Korea---but from Missouri
Posts: 829
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NickieL
as a forester, I about cried too....
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Why? 14" DEAD walnut trees?
If I were a Forester, I would be crying if they were ALIVE and part of a woodlot management program.
Scrub walnut trees are not rare. Veneer quality walnut trees are and in demand (the two keys to value).
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12/11/10, 12:12 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Carthage, Texas
Posts: 12,261
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chickenista
Walnut does burn nicely and I really like the sweet smell of the smoke from the walnut oils.
You done good. |
I'm thinking that smoke might just be toxic... I'd not want to breathe any of it...
Phil, I'd'a traded you two for one... bring me the walnut and trade for oak.
Hopefully the tree was already dead... I never cut live wood on my own place, as there's always tons of dead wood on others, free for the asking.
__________________
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming
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12/11/10, 12:25 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: michigan
Posts: 22,570
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Thing with the tree is it has to be laid down the proper way to get the best cuts out of it.Trees can split bad when hitting the ground. Alot of times the largest trees that are good for selling are on property lines/corners. These will have staples,wire ect. in them. That will ruin a veneer machine,so the harvester will come out and use a metal detector on the trees to see what they are worth.
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12/11/10, 01:16 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: MN
Posts: 7,609
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I've got one 35+ inches in my yard, the first branching is a ways up there, gotta be 16 foot. Couple of those branches are 8 feet long before they branch again.
Got a couple others in the grove, not quite as nice looking but nice.
Dad used to work with his uncle home sawrig. No one was allowed to nail any sort of metal on a tree around here! Everything not logs ened up going into the furnace, so lot of chain saw and buzz saw action. No metal allowed....
Always wonder what that tree is worth.
--->Paul
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12/11/10, 01:33 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: north Alabama
Posts: 10,811
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Doh! Thought I had a big walnut log, but it is hickory. Wonder what that is worth?
Last edited by Harry Chickpea; 12/11/10 at 02:28 PM.
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12/11/10, 02:18 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Western WA
Posts: 4,729
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What would you have done with the money, buy some firewood?
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12/11/10, 02:43 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 10,942
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The loggers next to me are cutting all the hardwood even walnut. they pointed out me a tree about 21 inches and told me that one will bring about $100 they pointed out to me one that is about 30 inches and told me that one would bring about $1000. The difference is one is crooked the other is straight and veneer quality. The size you are talking about is not worth much more than pulp wood oak. Walnut prices vary from nothing to large amounts and not every walnut is worth what some people think. You did good by cutting firewood.
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God must have loved stupid people because he made so many of them.
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