Black Walnut + Stihl 084=?????

[BloodOnTheIce]

Ok I've got a few questions about milling and harvesting of wood for something other than firewood.
On my parents property there are several black walnut trees, they had a couple different foresters and
loggers come out and give them a price on harvesting the trees.
For the 25 or so trees the various outfits wanted to harvest they were offered anywhere from 2,500-3,500$ or about 100$ a tree.
I checked with the NYS DEC and this was well below, the going rate for the wood, when confronted with this all of the outfits looking at the trees,
blamed the low price due to
1. All of the trees are about 1000 feet off the road, and would be more difficult to harvest and get on the trucks
2. In general small number of trees to be harvested, all said 25 trees was barely worth coming out for
3. Only one of the trees was veneer quality so all of the other wood was of little value.
My parents decided to pass on having the wood harvested.

I've got plenty of saws and plenty of free time.
I'm looking to help out my parents and see if I can get them some money for these trees.
How would I go about getting the most money for these trees possible? Would I be better cutting the trees and doing all of the labor myself and line up buyers for the logs myself?
I have a Stihl 084 and could get an Alaskan Mill for it and cut them custom for a buyer.
I'm just trying to help out my folks and not really sure which method of turning these trees in cash would be the most profitable.
I appreciate any advice on the topic.

 

[deeker]

Look for small mill owners, in your area. They often cut walnut for furniture and have lots of sale connections. Good luck.

Kevin

 

[woodshop]

Unfortunately, I can understand the logging outfits point of view. 25 walnut trees, unless there are several veneer logs involved, won't bring enough from the loggers end of things to justify sending a crew out to a place. Then again, I havn't worked on a logging crew for over 25 years. Also, this is one of those depends where in the country you are deals. If the market where you are is really hurting for walnut for whatever reason, I can guarantee the cutters in your area would be offering more cash.

As for milling with a csm to then sell the wood, milling that way is a lot of work. How much is your time worth? Bandsaw at least you are more efficient and can knock out some production on a Sat milling. Even then, depending on where you are, you need a market for the lumber. If you don't dry it properly your customer might be knocking on your door several months from now after running it through his table saw and finding the boards full of honeycomb because it was dried too fast. Lots of variables, not trying to put a damper on your idea. Walnut happens to be one of my fav woods to work along with cherry. I just find most folks at my shows prefer things made from oak and cherry more so than walnut.

 

[Backwood]

Also, this is one of those depends where in the country you are deals. If the market where you are is really hurting for walnut for whatever reason, I can guarantee the cutters in your area would be offering more cash.

.

Was reading a couple days ago at another place online and they were talking about its a lot of places that usually buy walnut that are not buying trees at all. The market for walnut is dead right now. But if you can cut them and go ahead and dry them , maybe things will be better If you find a local portable sawmill to come cut it you will " probably " end up with wood that looks better than if you used a csm and you would get an extra board or two. Better looking wood might pay for itself come time to sell if you dont have a planer.

talked to a guy last week said the sawmill sold him 2000' of 4/4 walnut for 2000. Dont get much cheaper than that.

 

[epicklein22]

For 100 bucks, I would let those trees continue to grow. You could get more making firewood out of them even. I doubt 3K is really gonna make a difference for your parents either. But if you really want to do it, a local small sawmill owner will pay the best for it. I know a tree guy that sells all of his saw logs to a guy with a small sawmill. The guy has a website and is really busy, always needing trees. Maybe you can find someone like that around you.

 

[DRB]

Wow that sure sounds good compared to what we get for pine out here. I sold a stuffed full 6 axle logging truck load of pine I think it was 32 or 35 cubic meters for about $1400. I had to do all the work to get the trees to the landing and then I had to pay $700 trucking to get it to the mill. Its hard to even find a place to sell it.

If you can do the work to get the logs to a landing were a hook truck can pick up the logs they should be worth more money delivered to the mill even if you have to pay for trucking. Just be sure that you don't cut the trees till you get a cut card and understand how they need the logs bucked.

Good luck

 

[Urbicide]

Do not cut the trees until you have them sold. Do you have a state forester that you could consult with? We have a pretty good system in Ohio through the DNR and my forester has been very helpful to me.


Getting the Most Return From Your Timber Sale:

http://ohioline.osu.edu/for-fact/0037.html