Black Walnut Price?

[Hoover]

Need a little help for an opportunity I got yesterday. I have a good customer who wants to buy some black walnut to make a large dining room table....he wants it be at least 14' long, w additional wood for coffee tables and bar stools. I have the trees but it's gonna take some work getting them out where they're located (fairly steep hill, deep in woods) however, he knows this is good wood and will pay good money, but how much do I charge him?
Am I better off going to our mill and seeing what they will pay for it and sell them to him, or just drop the trees, have my customer pay me and let him handle all the other details?

He is a good residential customer (bought 8 cord from me this yr) so I want to be fair to him, yet this is a unique opportunity on my side too.
Thanks all!

 

[lone wolf]

once the trees are gone they are gone I would not be in a hurry to cut walnut down on my own property they are getting hard to obtain so name your price a high one and take it from there.

 

[sloth9669]

once the trees are gone they are gone I would not be in a hurry to cut walnut down on my own property they are getting hard to obtain so name your price a high one and take it from there.

:agree2: 10 plus years ago i put 20 black walnut trees in the ground. now for the first time i got some nuts off them last year and all of then are 10-25 feet tall. really nice to see them take root...and in 20-30 years its my back up retirement fund.

 

[Curlycherry1]

Black walnut, kiln dried and ready to use runs ~$3.50/bd ft for 4/4 (1" thick) to around $6.50 for 8/4 around here. Getting boards 14' long is going to be a problem because I have seen boards that long only once and they were clear and very expensive.

As a woodworker I struggle with the problem of getting exactly what I need to do my work and I have ~10,000 bd ft in storage right now, yet it seems like for every job I don't have what I need. You friend's best bet is to go out and find what he needs at a supplier and get a cost and then work backwards from there. That will tell him the price and so he can determine if it is worth the time/effort. Trees standing may look good but with walnut there can be a lot of defects inside the tree and sapwood can be huge on some logs (heartwood is the desired part of the tree).

One place he might be able to find top quality long boards is www.horizonevolutions.com. I have bought a lot from them and they specialize on the unusual and hard to find.

 

[julian 1973]

walnut is not black gold. Logs usually go for 25-50 cents per board foot delivered to the mills.

 

[Woodcutteranon]

I cut up a butternut walnut last summer. Pretty wood. I kept a couple cookies and made clocks. Here is a picture of one. The backside shows how I recessed the motor so the clock fits flush to the wall.

 

[biggenius29]

once the trees are gone they are gone I would not be in a hurry to cut walnut down on my own property they are getting hard to obtain so name your price a high one and take it from there.

Really?

I just bought my wifes grandparents farm and he planted a ton of black walnut trees about 10 years ago. He planted them all around the property and they are making a mess of the property. My barns are all under the trees and you cannt park anything under them with out it turning black. This spring I was going to cut a few of the trees down for firewood, but if they are worth something maybe I wont.

Maybe the reason Grandpa planted them was because they were worth something.

 

[Curlycherry1]

Maybe the reason Grandpa planted them was because they were worth something.

Walnut used to be worth quite a bit but the price has come down and now it is about the same as black cherry, hard maple and birch. It is not a tree anyone is going to retire on. I see it all the time folks will list a tree on Ebay for tens of thousands of dollars and of course they never sell. I also see on woodweb folks discussing the cutting of some rather remarkable sized walnut trees in the midwest and again they do not go for thousands of dollars like people expect them to go for.

Walnut trees also produce a chemical called jugalone which is a chemical used for killing just about everything but quack grass. It also leaves a sticky mess on cars parked under the trees. Black cap raspberries love it under walnut trees because they can tolerate the chemical and so they thrive because they only have to compete against the grass.

Walnut is not gold growing in tree form like people think. I can get all the walnut I want for ~$3.30/bd ft.

 

[LEES WOODC]

Walnut used to be worth quite a bit but the price has come down and now it is about the same as black cherry, hard maple and birch. It is not a tree anyone is going to retire on. I see it all the time folks will list a tree on Ebay for tens of thousands of dollars and of course they never sell. I also see on woodweb folks discussing the cutting of some rather remarkable sized walnut trees in the midwest and again they do not go for thousands of dollars like people expect them to go for.

Walnut trees also produce a chemical called jugalone which is a chemical used for killing just about everything but quack grass. It also leaves a sticky mess on cars parked under the trees. Black cap raspberries love it under walnut trees because they can tolerate the chemical and so they thrive because they only have to compete against the grass.

Walnut is not gold growing in tree form like people think. I can get all the walnut I want for ~$3.30/bd ft.

I agree. A guy can go to just about any amish mill around and find a dozen boards air drying in the rafters for way less than $1/ft.

 

[johncinco]

Where are you at? I am 40 miles N of Grand Rapids. I have a 500bf cut and dried, 4/4 and 8/4 and some 2/4 for facial work. I also have 6 good sized logs sitting on the pile ready to go on the mill I can cut to whatever dimension he wants. I would guess he wants his finished table to be 14' long, not that he wants lumber that long. I dont think anyone would have that unless it was a custom cut job.