urban legend/walnut

[geofore]

I was reading John Paul's comments on the walnut/ money tree being an urban legend. John, the first walnut I cut on my place to put up a garage came back as $40,000 veneer. The last one I cut, down the street from here, 3 years ago went for $4,000. The one I have been ask to cut this year will be worth somewhere in between. It will have to be X-rayed for metal first. Some trees are urban and worth cutting and some are not. I still charge full price to take them down.
Finding a mill to cut them is getting harder but there are a few mills left that will do it if I'm willing buy the blades they might break. X-ray costs are very high but worth it if the tree is clean. You eat the cost if the tree has metal in it.

 

[Toddppm]

How can you tell which are veneer quality? The mills around here are a little far away and if you don't know them how can you tell if you got a fair shake?? Was looking at some today where I ride, about 30, none too old though.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I have not seen a veneer quality Jugalns log here let. They are all low branching and full of cavites and too much sweep.

In "all my years" doing this you are the second firts person account of a valuable log harvested. Part of this could be that trees grow bigger in PA then WI. The nearest veneer mill is in NW IL.

I had a good 9 ft log on a wonderfull stump/root system. I tried high and low for a buyer and no one would come look at it.

I still hold to my statement; if they all were like that then none of them would be worth that much.

 

[geofore]

legend

In the 1980's, 80,000 feet of oak stump from Duncan's farm went to Germany as veneer quality,cut off 23 acres of a hillside. Trees had not been cut through since WW1 and at that time nothing under 36" was taken. I knew they were good by looking at them. I look and few trees today are big enough or of quality for veneer. The walnut here are rare to be of qualiy or age. You will know when you see one that is. Has it been there more than 150-200 years? Are there no visible lightning strikes? Can the owner show you pictures of the tree from 1900 or 1910? The walnut I was asked to cut this year was in the background of a picture of a silver maple when the silver maple was planted in 1918 and this street had less than twenty homes on it. The silver maple was cut down in the 1980's, the silver maple was 25 years old when it was planted. How well do you know the trees you cut?
The oldest oak I have cut in the past 10 years had 362 rings. I got to cut it because it was hit by lightning.The owner told me that his grandfather and his dad never let anyone cut trees on their place, the owner was 82 years old. The tree was 125' tall and 54" dia. at breast hieght, white oak,lost 60' of the top due to rot and 12' of the bottom due to barbed wire put there in 1890's the rest is in my garage planed and dried and waiting for me to build something with it. Have you ever seen a 2"x28"x14'?