a neighbor had two big, tall black walnuts taken down recently and the scuttlebutt ’round here is that he got 5 FIGURES for each of ’em, both about 4′ diameter, straight trunks & no branches to about 20′.
Does 10 grand sound right or is the grapevine is working OT?
Listeners write in about removing masonry chimneys and ask about blocked ridge vents, deal-breakers with fixer-uppers, and flashing ledgers that are spaced from the wall.
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Dig into cutting-edge approaches and decades of proven solutions with total access to our experts and tradespeople.
Start Free Trial NowGet instant access to the latest developments in green building, research, and reports from the field.
Start Free Trial Now
Replies
anything is possible. Some veneer mills might pay that much, I doubt it tho'. Yard trees are almost certain to hold hidden treasue in the way of hooks, chains, nails ,bullets..you name it.
But some "adventurous" soul may pay that much. Maybe 5k each, if that person was generous and really had a need.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
I hope the sale price was true and I hope word travels.
It always seems there are three things sad about seeing old residential trees (like the walnuts that started the thread) come down.
One is losing the tree. Two is the cost. (Retirees paying $5K+ to have 80-100 year old hardwood maples removed - after one falling limb crushes the new neighbour's Range Rover). Three is that the whole thing inevitably goes straight into the mobile wood-chipper !
Why is it so uncommon for residential trees to be milled? At least, it's almost impossible to arrange for it to happen here (speaking from experience in two cities in Ontario).
The newer residents on the same street would pay ridiculous prices to have the wood turned into something custom and wonderful, so it could really be the circle of life.
Why is it so uncommon for residential trees to be milled?
embedded metal/foreign objects - - a carbide blade on a comercial mill is worth hundreds to thousands of dollars - a hunk of metal can spoil the blade and brings the system to a halt - - it's not worth it....
"there's enough for everyone"
Edited 8/22/2004 10:23 pm ET by David Doud
Ok. Wrecking thousands of dollars of equipment is a good reason.
I saw a guy on TV once with a portable mill saw setup on a trailer. He would get called out for rarer trees or those with better than average potential. I think he bid very competitively on the price of removal in exchange for getting to keep any usable boards. Sometimes the gamble paid off.
Some wood-workers will pay a premium for this kind of ecologically sound product (not old-growth forest or recent rain-forest oversees). More still if they had anything like a personal connection to the tree or even tree type.
Have you priced 3'+ wide, old growth, walnut boards lately? If the logs were in good shape, sounds plausible to me.
Ain't never seen many of them boards @ home depot, have ya?
We just bought some walnut for an entertainment center that I'm going to start on, paid around $4.50 to $5 a bd. ft.
Out of all the boards that came in not a one was under 17" wide! I think we bought 150 bd ft. Now I'm sure this is a bit rare, especially for Texas.
I have a whole tree up in Iowa stickered, some of the boards are 22" wide, I got the tree for the hauling, just had to pay for the milling.
I have never thought walnut was all that hard to come buy in wide widths.
Doug
>> I have never thought walnut was all that hard to come buy in wide widths.
Certainly not as hard to come by as wide mesquite boards. ;)
I don't know. Actually, I haven't ever priced wide walnut myself, but when I've looked at other woods, the price of wide boards, 24 inches and up, is always right up there in nosebleed territory.
Veneer might be the better explanation. I've been reading for years about the veneer log buyers paying really substantial premiums to get the logs they want.
Certainly not as hard to come by as wide mesquite boards. ;)
You got that right! We just got done with a big project(pictures coming soon) for a big shot here in Austin, TX. I think that we used about 2500 bd ft of mesquite, God I hate that stuff!
We resawed all of it and applied it to substrate, to get more yield out of the stuff. That stuff twists, turns and does everything else imaginable.
If you can find a board of mesquite 10" wide by 8' long, clear, I'll.... well hell I just don't think you can. I know that with all the cut offs I'll be good for smoking ribs for some time to come.
I think your right about the veneer though, I think that brings the premium money.
Doug
the real $$$$ is "veneer quality" logs..IIRC they need to be 10' long min 36'' dia at breast height NO possibilty of metal, and NO branch scars. There are other grades for the NEXT log up from there.
I did see an outfit buy timber off about 15 acres in Pa., assortd hardwoods..I think they paid the lot owner about 15K, or 1K an acre..they also did a swell job of cleaning up and not skidding over all the young stuff.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
The good stuff is better'n gold!
Ya, the Amish crew used sleds and horses and burnt the small trim. Banded up and left the slab offcuts.
A butcher crew did some acreage next door and rutted the land, left mangled wood all over and left nothing standing. Bloodsuckers.sobriety is the root cause of dementia
I don't know for sure, guess it all depends who wants em and how badly. Ten large sounds like alot of money for a tree, but you could make quite a few rifle stocks with a 4ft dia. walnut. Not sure where you are but trees that size would dwarf any of these old "buttermilk" pines in cent. jawja. Let me know what you find out.
We buy 6, 8 and 10 inch wide walnut boards at the sawmill for anywhere from 3 to 6 dollars per bd. ft. depending on the market. My current project is going to have walnut cabinets for the same price as maple. Now cherry, thats another story.
kcoyner
An Amish crew logged out some acreage here a few years back and the cherry was treated like gold.
A neighbor came over and asked them if they would like two large black walnuts trees that were threatening his house. They weren't interested in an even trade just to cut them down and they had the mill right there.
Said there wasn't enough demand to risk the 36" carbide saw blade.sobriety is the root cause of dementia
rez,
A guy at my local mill shop claims that cherry is really getting hard to find. He says that prices are headed for heart pine territory. It's never been my favorite wood but I do like it in cabinetry and furniture. Personally I would have taken the walnut for the beauty and the cherry for the money.
k
Does 10 grand sound right or is the grapevine is working OT?
well, a twenty foot log with a 48" diameter calculates out around 2000 board feet - - so is 4000 board feet on the stump worth $10K? - - maybe...that would be high for common sawing...certainly if veneer quality...
gotta say that "about 4 foot diameter" is pretty ambivelant - - that's a big walnut tree....I'd have to see some evidence to accept it...
Sounds high. I know it's way high for this neck of the woods. Friend of mine operates a mill. For a yard tree, I doubt he'd offer more than $100. Now, that said, seeing the thing with an educated pair of eyes can change the whole world. Obviously, a veneer quality log is going to net a good price, and gunstocks - overlooked but certainly profitable. But good stocks need good figure, and that's often pretty hard to gamble on without slabbing the thing open to look. The low end of the price - you can get air dried black walnut for $1.50, and the high - burl veneer, two totally different things. So possible, sure. Likely?
"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain
Maybe I ought to take a pic of my few years ago $20 dollar flea market buy of an old black walnut barn beam and post it here.
Then maybe I could sell it for big bucks and go buy some tools, man!sobriety is the root cause of dementia
In the February issue of Fine Woodworking there was a blurb about a 200 year old English walnut. Supposedly the log yielded 6000 bf, with one 6 ft by 17 ft by 2.5 inch slab getting $100/bf, and $35-50/bf for other parts of the log... So, the grapevine might not be full of it.
Around here.. those would probably get 10K for both... IF they were VERY clear. If there were even a hint of blemish... they would bring about 1/2 of that.
I would highly doubt that a veneer buyer would buy a yard tree... too much risk (as has been discussed). If, however, those trees were set off in a woods behind the lot and were part of a "wooded set aside" from the development... it's possible that he got some good scratch for them. 10K each? That is a bit of a stretch, but I guess weirder things have happened.
Several years ago in Michigan somewhere, a guy had a couple walnut trees on his property stolen. At that time they said the going price was somewhere arount 5 grand per tree, if I remember right. They were worth enough for the thief to take the risk. (Of course, some people will take the risk for almost nothing.)
wait! I goddit...5 figures each....$100.00
could you ask him? then report back here?"there's enough for everyone"
Maybe you should apply the 'RULE OF THREE' here. That is, when a guy is telling you stories, you divide by three; when a girl is telling it, you multiply by three.
That said, almost 20 years ago I had a friend in college with acreage 'somewhere' that had walnut trees. When he needed tuition, he'd sell a tree or two.
My aunt lived off the payments for one veneer log a year, plus a little social security. Same buyer would cut one large walnut each year for a veneer mill. She usually got between $7000.00 and $8500.00 for each tree, depending on the size. These trees grew on her 31 acre property in WV.This was in the early 70's until 1997 when she ran out of large veneer quality trees.
mike
You might get some lookers, but in all honesty yard grown timber isnt as stable as forrest grown timber. Due to the watering cycles, errant fertilizers and other factors in a yard a tree really wont produce what the mills are looking for. Yard trees are risky to mill (metals, rocks and other abrasives in the wood)and just as risky to kiln dry. The stability factors in more then the amount of any foreign objects in the lumber. If its not stable the whole tree becomes worthless in the kiln.
If this tree were in some acreage of timber you could get 10k or more from a veneer mill.
If youre a gambling man, pay to have it milled in the best yield from an experienced mill operator, youll have to pay for any damaged blades. Stack and sticker it, and let it air dry to workable RMC (12-8%) and sell the harvest. YOu could get anywhere from $5-10 bdft depending on figure, size and grading.
I keep hearing concern about metal objects in the wood. Don't veneer companies use sophisticated metal detectors?
OH man this is too funny, I swear it's true!
I was young and volunteered to work at a sawmill to learn the ropes, I knew I was a woodworker at heart, and really wanted to absorb all I could, so I worked for free.
anyway, they had me end bucking some oak logs (cutting off the big root swell so it could be debarked better) and I noticed a metal detector layin around, and I asked about when it gets used..the owner Carl says " son, we check em all, but not always with that..we have a professional model...hold on here."
He walks away, comes back 5 mins later with a PIG on a rope..no kidding..Carl says " This here is PIG IRON, if theres any metal in that log he'll let ya know" "let me know? how" I said. He says "well, his tail will get straight when he finds iron, that's why we call him pig iron"..SUUURRREE...I am thinking.
Well, we walk pig iron the length of the log, nuthin..he's gruntin ,snortin, tuggin on the rope..pig stuff..ya know?
Carl sez, " look here, ( grabs a 20D nail outta his pocket) get a hammer from the kiln room, and pick ANY log here..(there were about 25 I was buckin) and drive this in AS DEEP AS YOU CAN"
So I did, ( the pig was NOT looking) and I said lets go..
Carl an I walked that pig by almost all the logs, when we got to the one next to the one I spiked, that lil buggers tail went straight out like a sailor on leave! Carl smiled and said "see he found it!" I said "nope it's THAT log there"..so we took the pig over there..and BOING the tail went! Damn, I thought..
When we took an axe to the log I spiked, of course, there it was, then we chopped PI's first log, and guess what? A hunk of barbed wire and its insulater were under about 2'' of bark and sapwood...!!!
NO LIE...freaked me out.
BTW, after 2 weeks, they insisted they pay me, offered me a full time gig..I stayed for almost a year, and ran the Weinig 4 sided planer and also the straightline rip saw in the flooring /moulding shop..great place it was..
Pig Iron eventually died, a few yrs later..I continued to buy wood from there until I moved to NC.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
Now there's a story that should be in.... Well, maybe not Fine Homebuilding, but somewhere! LOL!
Penthouse won't print it either
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
Hustler might...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming.... WOW!!! What a Ride!
Yea, their standards arnt as high!
BTW, I took that picture of the "escort" to work today, I think there is going to be some more guys wanting jobs!
Edited 8/23/2004 10:35 pm ET by Doug@es
Tell 'em to get in line...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming.... WOW!!! What a Ride!
she's georgeous... isn't she..
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming.... WOW!!! What a Ride!
That she is!
Oh man, what a classic story that was.
In fact, it was so good I am going to open up my cupboard with my milkbones collection and give them all to you for that.
Read it to my pop and he Roared!sobriety is the root cause of dementia
Sold 15 popular trees five years ago to a outfit in NC that does venier. Averaged 30 to 36" across the stump with 6" hearts. Guy wrote a check out on the spot for 12 grand. Told us (Pop and me) that they would end up over seas.
Best walnut story was the guy who moved in down the road from the farm who cut down and cut up for fire wood the three HUGE Walnuts in his wood lot. Told my dad they were crowding out the other hard woods. Mostly a stand of gum and oak.
Eddy will enjoy them..send beer for me.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.