Buying and selling walnut logs?

[Woody912]

I worked near Fresno California about 12 years ago where walnut groves are very plentiful. When an orchard gets to a certain age it has to go. Many farmers would advertise free wood. You had to have somewhat of a reputation for completing a job before you could get started. What we did was climb the tree about 20 to 30' up and set snatch blocks on several main limbs then run steel cable to my winch which was chained to several trees. The best time for this was not during the summer but when the ground was moist. Start up the winch and run until the whole tree was completely out of the ground. Then we cut all the limbs down to about 14'' to 16'' which I got for firewood. The guy I worked with trimmed all the roots and loaded up the base in a dump truck and hauled it to his yard where he immediately waxed them and put them up for sale. He had several years where he cleared several hundred thousands of dollars with the bases. I remember several really nice bases that sold for $5,000 each. He also had a small mill where he cut them up for gun stocks and made even more $$. In my best years I sold more that $50,000 in firewood. As usual I was in the wrong business at the wrong time. Thanks

Guessing those were mostly Claro ( English) walnut? Tend to be a little more in demand for high end gunstocks

 

[norcalian]

I live in northern California in a region that has more walnuts than almost anywhere in the world. I mill black and English walnut often and it is worth good money sold as gun stock material. We have milled several 34 to 36 wide logs that have produced magnificent slabs. If you find one decent log to mill buy a alaskan mill and big saw and have fun, the slabs will pay for the setup!

 

[norcalian]

W

Guessing those were mostly Claro ( English) walnut? Tend to be a little more in demand for high end gunstocks

When English gets big (usually over 10") it gets a beautiful black center. This and the graftwood between the English and black walnut are highly sought after!

 

[RDAA]

Just sold an 8'6" walnut log today 32" diameter kind of oval shaped on one end. It wasn't even close to a veneer log. Sold it to a guy that mills them into live edge slabs. I got 900 bucks for it and got paid to remove the tree too.

 

[norcalian]

Just sold an 8'6" walnut log today 32" diameter kind of oval shaped on one end. It wasn't even close to a veneer log. Sold it to a guy that mills them into live edge slabs. I got 900 bucks for it and got paid to remove the tree too.

Glad that you got a fair price as a log.... But I have two 34"x8" black walnut logs I'm milling into slabs next weekend... I get 8 good 3 inch slabs. I'll sell the slabs to a vineyard or brewery for bars @ 600 to 800 apeice so.....get an alaskan mill!

 

[Zale]

Never sold a walnut log but did get $1800.00 for a Paulownia log.

 

[RDAA]

Glad that you got a fair price as a log.... But I have two 34"x8" black walnut logs I'm milling into slabs next weekend... I get 8 good 3 inch slabs. I'll sell the slabs to a vineyard or brewery for bars @ 600 to 800 apeice so.....get an alaskan mill!

I had the same idea. It really would make some cool looking slabs!