walnut tree value

[porthos]

i have a walnut tree that is appx. 22 in. diameter. the main trunk is about 8 ft. high before the tree branches out. i want it gone. the question has is; does it have any value, so, that i might get it cut down for free. i don't want to pay someone that will charge me then sell the tree. there are no nails. my dad planted the tree around 1970. any thoughts??

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

It's probably worth a couple hundred bucks.
The trick is to find the person who is willing to pay for it.
Most of the saw-mill guys that I've run across aren't willing to pay, but they will offer you half of the lumber that they cut as payment.
If you are unable to cut it down yourself, due to buildings closeby or whatever, you'll be paying for that.

[06ackley]

I had one and found a guy that cut it down and hauled the brush for free if he could have the wood for lumber. I know he made money on it but I was happy having it gone for free

[JWFilips]

Call your local saw mills and tell them what you have! Black walnut is not something to trash or cut for firewood
I see you are from PA There are a lot of gunstock people in the Central PA Lewisburg section They would be interested.
http://www.18thcenturyartisanshow.com
This event is going on this weekend Go to the 2020 exhibitors link you will find a number of stock wood folks

[porthos]

i called a "forester" after i posted this thread. he handeled the sale of the timber at my gunclub. we got $48,000. he got $7,000 of that. seems like a lot but that's the going rate. anyway he said that the tree may be worth $200.00, but finding someone to cut it down and buy it might be tough. so, i'll make some calls and se if i can get a discount from someone who will cut it down and keep the tree for its wood value.

[MaryB]

Get it cut, take the 8' section to a sawmill and pay to get it cut up. Stack the boards in your garage attic area to dry for 2 years then sell it. That is what people around here do... I picked up some oak that way, it was 1/2 the price of the lumber yard! I had to sand it because it was still rough cut but that was fine. One of these days I need to get a planer for the pallet wood I salvage and use for small projects.

[RU shooter]

Yeah it's worth some cash but not enough for someone to come cut it down and haul it all away logs like that are mighty heavy and takes a proper equipment to lift it onto a trailer or truck bed most lumber /tree guys aren't gonna want to deal with all that for one tree

[trails4u]

I would think being in PA you could give it away for firewood.... I know that's somewhat sinful when it comes to walnut....but the BTUs in walnut are impressive, and anyone heating with wood would probably take it, given that it's easy to get to and you don't put too many constraints on them. If they can drive right to it, and you just let them take the burnable wood...you might get a bite.

[NSB]

Most places don't want trees in yards, fence rows, etc because most of them have nails and stuff in them. They're simply not worth the impact to the saw cutting them up. You can't even imagine the stuff they find inside these trees. I once saw one with a horse shoe inside of it. I've seen a lot with barbed wire and nails also.

[knifemaker]

This black walnut tree is well over 100 years old and just over 6 feet in dia. on the trunk. Some of the upper limbs are over 33 inches in dia. 20 years ago a buyer offered 15 thousand for the tree and was turn down. If it shows signs of dying, the tree will be sold at that time. Companies that make wood veneer will pay higher prices for trees like this one then gun stock makers will. That offer 20 years ago was from a gun stock maker.255721

[Mr_Sheesh]

Craigslist here usually has someone offering to come cut your dangerous trees down for free; Look there maybe?

[jonp]

If your going to cut it down get a cheap saw wood mill like a Haddon and make the planks your self. I use mine to cut planks, 6 x 6's etc at my camp. After you have the planks, stack them correctly and start looking for a buyer. Custom furniture makers, gun stock, counter makers, etc. all might be interested in them

[richhodg66]

Not to change the subject of the thread too much, but I'd love a big walnut tree like that in my yard. They do grow here, but not real common and most of the trees in Kansas aren't particularly nice or attractive (cottonwoods and hackberry). What problem is it causing if I may ask?

[Tonto]

Lots of good advice here, some not so much but I'll take a shot. One tree in a yard is a tough sell to the commercial crowd, glad to see someone mention the probability of nails or other tramp metal embedded in the tree. Veneer logs are the best of the best, long, straight and clear of defect, not even sure the photo of the tree from another post would be veneer quality. The bole and even large limbs would make nice boards, the portable mill owner who would give you lumber in trade is a good idea and a lot of folks have these mills and are in that business. If you know any lathe turners, they would be happy to pick through the trimmings for bowl blanks and turning squares they would mill. If this is out in the open, easy to cut down, as mentioned, if in a potential hazard location with buildings and/or utilities nearby, it will be $1000 and up perhaps. Walnut has an interesting property where it uses chemical warfare to outcompete and kill plants that try and grow nearby (allelopathy). It can be beyond the dripline of the canopy. Boards that contain the white sapwood can be darkened by steaming. The lumber is valuable but to get it in the condition to use it takes awhile or costs with kiln drying. No shame in using some for firewood, you gotta do what you gotta do. Wish I lived closer.

[Wayne Smith]

Walnut trees poison the ground around them and drop lots of nuts that stain the ground, driveway, and anything they touch. Yeah, you can make a nice fabric stain from the nut shells, but when it's not were you want it... . I had a big white oak tree cut down, two 13' sections, called a sawyer who backed his sawmill in my back yard, checked for metal and chainsawed some out, and sawed it up. I got in excess of $2000 of lumber out of it, sawed 5/4 as much quartersawn as he could. Stickered it on my back porch, let it set for two years, and I have a planer. Took it to a local lumber yard to get it rough planed and one side cut square and I've been using it ever since. This was five or more years ago.

[waksupi]

Check with furniture shops. Dad sold one in our front yard for over $1000. That was in the early '60's.

[country gent]

Buying a standing tree is a bigger risk than logs or lumber. Years back we took down a silver maple that was over 3' in dia from dads yard. Plan was to cut limb and haul all that was usable to the mill for wood Dropped it and found out the trunk was hollow, only about 3" thick ring of wood. When they buy a standing tree its a risk. a yard tree or one from a fence row even more so.Chains, fencing and staples, odd parts all may be in them. Seen one trunk from a yard that had a small cast iron frying pan in it.

[skeettx]

Watching with interest
Mike

[historicfirearms]

I used to work as a veneer buyer a few years back. I would cringe whenever a land owner would call me for a yard tree. Our mill wouldn't buy them for rist of embedded metal. We would resell all the walnut we got to a bigger sawmill. He would have walnut auctions occasionally and I was there for one. The majority of buyers were from China. I know logs but walnut is a specialty. They can go for big bucks for things that would be considered firewood in hard maple. I would suggest hiring someone to cut the tree down for you if you are unable to yourself. Then call around to some bigger sawmills and see if they will come out and look at what you have. If they will buy a yard tree you may be looking at a few thousand dollars if the wood is nice. Being the tree is around 40 years old and 22 inch diameter it was a fast grown tree with wide growth rings. That really hurts the value so I wouldn't get my hopes up much. Walnut is big business in your area so go online and find some sawmills that specialize in it and ask them before you do anything.

[bangerjim]

Here is AZ people pay $8-12/bdft for good walnut, 4/4 and 6/4 planed back & front. Finding a sawyer to cut id down and then mill it is you biggest problem. Walnut back in PA is not as scarce as out here in the Desert SW. I hauled 1,000 bdft of prime 4/4 and 6/4 walnut that was from a tree I played in as a kid in Iowa. Cost me only $1.50/bdft for milling. I was hauling furniture anyway so it just laid on the bottom of the truck!

Many mills will not take the risk of embedded nails and screws in unknown logs. Those big saws they use cost much more than that tree is worth to get resharpened! My guy went over the tree with a professional metal detector but still found nails 5 and 6 inches inside the tree I remember driving in to put steps to my tree house. Fortunately they were rusted away and did not cause any damage to the saw.

Check around.

banger

[oldred]

First off it should be at least a sentence of 20 years at hard labor for anyone found guilty of cutting up a walnut tree for firewood!!!!:evil: Even to suggest such a thing should be considered a felony!:mad:

I wish I lived close enough to help you out there, the $200 figure that has been mentioned is about right for the tree you have described but they also should have to clean up the mess for you. I have bought a couple of trees here locally and salvaged one from a couple of dum,,,,,,err,,,well less than real smart folks, who were cutting up a huge very old walnut for firewood that likely would have brought them a couple of thousand had they sold it. I paid $100 for two other trees and gave two fellas $200 ($100 ea) to cut them down and clean up the mess then I salvaged the forks and sold the logs to a lumber yard for most of my money back and I got the forks which is what I was mostly after, if a fork is large and solid it can be worth way more than the log (to the right people, such as me :mrgreen:) ! If you have someone cut that thing DON'T LET THEM RUIN THE CROTCH WOOD BY CUTTING IT TOO SHORT!!!!!! It makes me sick to see some of the otherwise beautiful pieces of walnut crotch RUINED by the logger cutting as close to it as he can, he gains about $10 worth of log and ruins a piece of crotch wood that could otherwise be worth more than the stikin log!:mad:

I have a large walnut crotch here drying right now that I gave $200 for and I can't wait to cut it open to see what I have, if there is rot I may not have much and that sometimes happens but usually I can find a few pieces that are the equal of wood blanks I see on Ebay for as much as $1000 or even more. If you have that tree cut then have the logger leave at least a foot of wood below where the bark starts to split. You might be surprised at how much interest you would get listing that crotch on Craigslist.

[gwrench]

We had a similar size black walnut die at my workplace this year. I looked briefly into it's value as lumber and didn't have any good options.

It made me sad but we just cut it for firewood. It still has value and will be appreciated!

[jonp]

First off it should be at least a sentence of 20 years at hard labor for anyone found guilty of cutting up a walnut tree for firewood!!!! Even to suggest such a thing should be considered a felony!

How about Cherry? There are a few trees near my camp up north that are spectacular. One fell down in a storm and I measured 3 Veneer grade logs out of the trunk about 36 in DBH. It then had a bunch of branches that could be sawn up for bowls, stocks etc. I didn't have time to get it done when I was there on vacation so let it sit for the next year. When I got back the next summer I went over to take a look. The camp a few miles from me had cut the entire thing up for camp wood. Split and all.

[kerplode]

You might be surprised at how much interest you would get listing that crotch on Craigslist.
Yup...
;-)

[Bad Ass Wallace]

I have had 5 Camphor trees offered for free just for cutting and removal. The cost of labour from a commercial tree feller was too much @ $3000. When dry it has about the same density as walnut and IMHO better grain figure.

https://i.imgur.com/gSUEKUg.jpg

[Finster101]

Good luck. I have a Brazilian Rosewood tree down on my property and can't seem to find anyone interested in it. Before rainy season this year it will be cut and stacked for firewood. I do not have a mill nor am I interested in getting one.

[jsizemore]

Good luck. I have a Brazilian Rosewood tree down on my property and can't seem to find anyone interested in it. Before rainy season this year it will be cut and stacked for firewood. I do not have a mill nor am I interested in getting one.

When I still lived in Fla. a group of luthiers would get together to buy a tree and make stringed instruments for folk and bluegrass. You might find a weekly jam in your area and make a connection for your Brazilian rosewood.

[lefty o]

Good luck. I have a Brazilian Rosewood tree down on my property and can't seem to find anyone interested in it. Before rainy season this year it will be cut and stacked for firewood. I do not have a mill nor am I interested in getting one.

that i wouldnt do, especially since in recent years they have made brazillian rosewood an endangered species an no longer import it into the USA. in a few years as supplies dry up, it could really gain value.

[JWFilips]

jonp,
Not so much for cherry unless it is figured ( not often)!
But depending on where you are you never know
In NEPA we have a lot of wild black cherry ...yes cabinet makers like it but it dosen't have the value of Black Walnut
But I sure wouldn't make firewood out of that either!

I do not know much out of Camphor Wood never heard of it being used for a gunstock

[Eddie Southgate]

Good luck. I have a Brazilian Rosewood tree down on my property and can't seem to find anyone interested in it. Before rainy season this year it will be cut and stacked for firewood. I do not have a mill nor am I interested in getting one.

Call Martin Guitar company before you cut it , they might be interested in buying it on the stump .

[trails4u]

First off it should be at least a sentence of 20 years at hard labor for anyone found guilty of cutting up a walnut tree for firewood!!!! Even to suggest such a thing should be considered a felony!

While I agree in concept, from a global kinda perspective....we all live in different worlds/environments. It grows like a weed around here. I live in an area referred to as 'Walnut Grove'....go to a church by the same name. It's literally everywhere....so if it's not a spectacular specimen of a tree, it's absolutely free game for firewood. I have dozens, maybe 100s, on my property, but none are bigger than maybe 14dbh, most smaller than that. I don't cut them for firewood...but if one dies or falls, it's probably gonna end up in the wood furnace. Locally it's just not that big a thing.

[john.k]

BAW...Camphor Laurel splits as it dries......woodturners use it by turning green and wet and microwaving the finished object ......apparently sets the sap ,and slows shrinkage.

[lefty o]

everything splits as it dries if you dont seal the ends.

[RU shooter]

One of the issues is in this area black walnut is fairly common and don't really bring a premium same with all of the hardwoods really their everywhere . My dad had a few acres logged about 8 years ago most all of that lumber ended up as pallet wood or dunage for industry according to the guys logging it .

[Petrol & Powder]

I used to work as a veneer buyer a few years back. I would cringe whenever a land owner would call me for a yard tree. Our mill wouldn't buy them for rist of embedded metal. We would resell all the walnut we got to a bigger sawmill. He would have walnut auctions occasionally and I was there for one. The majority of buyers were from China. I know logs but walnut is a specialty. They can go for big bucks for things that would be considered firewood in hard maple. I would suggest hiring someone to cut the tree down for you if you are unable to yourself. Then call around to some bigger sawmills and see if they will come out and look at what you have. If they will buy a yard tree you may be looking at a few thousand dollars if the wood is nice. Being the tree is around 40 years old and 22 inch diameter it was a fast grown tree with wide growth rings. That really hurts the value so I wouldn't get my hopes up much. Walnut is big business in your area so go online and find some sawmills that specialize in it and ask them before you do anything.

/\ This is pretty close to my view and experience.

My family had a large number of black walnut trees on a property but their value was a bit of a moving target.
As a veneer log, it had one value and was relatively easy to harvest. As specialty lumber (quarter sawn boards for furniture and high end trim) it had another value - but only as a finished product. Nobody would pay top dollar for it as a standing tree.
As wood for gun stocks, people would talk a big game but absolutely no one would actually pay for the standing tree. Most conversations went like this: "that tree is worth $5000 (or some other big number)"; "OK, give me $1000 and you can cut it down and take it away". "oh,.....ah.......er..........I'll get back to you".

[Daver7]

Good luck. I have a Brazilian Rosewood tree down on my property and can't seem to find anyone interested in it. Before rainy season this year it will be cut and stacked for firewood. I do not have a mill nor am I interested in getting one.
Don't use it for fire wood!
Here's a forum I'm on and I'm sure if you post it on there someone will want it.
http://luthiersforum.com/forum/index.php?sid=d1b2a6eb403dc9b13721875a8ca506ea
If you'd like I'll post it and pass on contact info to the right people.
P.M. me !!!!!!!!!!

[waksupi]

Good luck. I have a Brazilian Rosewood tree down on my property and can't seem to find anyone interested in it. Before rainy season this year it will be cut and stacked for firewood. I do not have a mill nor am I interested in getting one.

Better check in to that before making it into firewood. Rosewood is toxic, and can poison you when cutting it. I always disliked working with it to make forend and grip caps, even with a respirator it would make me feel ill. I hate to think what the smoke would be like from burning it.

[jonp]

jonp,
Not so much for cherry unless it is figured ( not often)!
But depending on where you are you never know
In NEPA we have a lot of wild black cherry ...yes cabinet makers like it but it dosen't have the value of Black Walnut
But I sure wouldn't make firewood out of that either!

I do not know much out of Camphor Wood never heard of it being used for a gunstock

Cherry up where I am is not common and there are 2 Ethan Allen Furniture Plants not far that would buy it for that use. They pay top dollar for that type of wood not only cherry but maple, beech, birch etc as long as it's top grade. Lesser is of more value as firewood.

I've also never heard of camphor wood. Looks pretty, though.
Here is an interesting sight that lists woods and what they are used for https://www.wood-database.com/wood-finder/?fwp_wood_type=hardwood&fwp_name=C&fwp_paged=2

[redneck1]

So perspective , the thing with logs is you never know what's inside till it's cut .
Plain Jain walnut isn't really all that valuable . And a 22 inch 8 ft log won't yield all that much lumber. Maybe 150 bdf on a thinner Kerf
Circle mill if it's dead straight and not much taper .
A band mill might get 160bdf yield .
In my area , that log is worth about $0.30 a bdf if you haul it to a sawmill yourself to sell .

[oldred]

It's worth way more than that here, I got a $1.10 a bdf for those logs I sold. Besides it's that crotch wood that can bring a good bit of change, just check prices for that stuff on Ebay, even one good stock piece from a solid fork with good figure can bring hundreds. I have several pieces drying now and a couple ready to work plus a couple I have turned into stocks already, these all came from forks that were destined for firewood before I salvaged them.

255798

255799

255800

The first two are both sides of the same stock and the bottom one is a lousy phone pic that washes out the figure in the rear of the larger rifle, the forearm came from the same piece of wood and the stock has much better figure on the other side and at the rear. The stock on the smaller rifle actually came from a fairly young tree that was twisted and curved so was totally worthless for any kind of saw mill lumber but that twisted trunk yielded two stock blanks the likes of which I have seen go for well over a thousand bucks on Ebay, I was delighted when I cut open that log! Even a small fork cut properly can yield surprising pieces of wood sometimes, ya just never know what's in there till you open one up.

[Elkins45]

I’m amazed some amateur woodworker wouldn’t be interested in buying any nice hardwood tree, or at least removing it for you.

[oldred]

I’m amazed some amateur woodworker wouldn’t be interested in buying any nice hardwood tree, or at least removing it for you.

I think a lot more such trees would get removed by interested folks if they knew about them, just getting word out on some sort of social media could possibly yield such results. I for one am always on the look-out locally for such trees but sadly I usually only hear about them being cut for firewood.

[Petrol & Powder]

There is a substantial amount of equipment and labor needed to harvest a tree for anything other than firewood.

Converting a standing tree into something profitable involves a lot more than just cutting it down.

[oldred]

There is a substantial amount of equipment and labor needed to harvest a tree for anything other than firewood.

Converting a standing tree into something profitable involves a lot more than just cutting it down.


Yes it does, as I have said already I have managed to salvage two myself and there are folks who are perfectly capable of removing a tree from someone's property, HOWEVER that also depends on a lot of variables such as close by buildings, power lines, roads or any of several other obstacles not the least of which could be local ordinances should the tree be in city limits. Still if a person wants a tree removed it makes no difference if it's cut down for firewood or whatever, it's to be removed regardless. The question here is not what's involved in removing the tree it's what to do with it and whether to pay someone to remove it or maybe get it done for free as salvage or even possibly profit from the thing.

[jonp]

Put it up on Craigslist. You never know and I'd rather someone that wants the wood for furniture, gunstocks, musical instruments etc takes it than it just being cut up.

[jonp]

That's amazing work, oldred

[oldred]

The wood used for those stocks was literally snatched from the jaws of a gas powered wood splitter, they were busy splitting the straight grain easy to split pieces first and the forks were yet to be cut into "bite-sized" pieces for the splitter when I drove by. I backed up with full intentions of offering to buy those forks but the guy was happy to just get rid of them (I was happier to get them!:-D) and they helped load them on my truck. I covered the wood to protect it from the sun drying it too fast and a year later cut them open with my chainsaw, seriously compared to what sells on Ebay these free blanks would have cost several hundreds of dollars had I bought them.

[Petrol & Powder]

A tree growing in the forest amongst other trees will generally have a longer straight section of trunk that is devoid of large limbs. Those trees are competing for sunlight.
A lone tree in a field or yard will often assume a more expansive crown with a shorter trunk section and lots of limbs. So right there the tree is less valuable for timber or veneer logs.

Getting the tree down is only part of the job of harvesting it for lumber. You need to get as many long logs out of the trunk as possible and you need to be able to get those logs to a sawmill or veneer plant. I don't know anyone that can pick up 10' long, 30" diameter log and even if they could, you're not putting that on the back of a 1/2 ton pick-up.
Even with a portable mill you're going to need a tractor, a loader, knuckle boom, or something. And you're probably going to need some people.

Then you have the problem of old trees near houses and fences that have nails, staples, barb wire, woven wire, etc. in them. And trees that are rotted and hollow, which you will not know until you get it cut up.


Oldred's rescue of forks and other pieces destined for the splitter was fortuitous and resulted in some amazing blanks for stocks; however, even that required the expenditure of a lot of time and labor. I commend him on his skills and effort, but even though the raw material was free, his time and labor was an investment.

Getting desirable blanks out of the base of a tree is even more work. You have to cut the base of the tree very close to the ground (often requiring very long cutting bars on the saw) or push the tree over with a bulldozer and salvage the stump that way.

I think the best way to recoup some value out of a "yard tree" is to get the tree down and get as many large logs out of the trunk as possible. Sell those logs to a mill. Then cut up the crown for firewood. You can save a few of the larger forks for potential gun stock blanks if there are any good candidates.

The profit is going to be the difference between the value of the timber and the cost to process it. There's not that much profit in a "yard tree".

[Tripplebeards]

If the tree is only worth $200 I would trade it for somebody to cut it down, remove it, and grind up your stump. It cost me more than that to remove a pine tree of similar size from my front yard. So in my opinion if you can get somebody to remove that tree and grind up your stump you got paid for your tree.


If you wasted all your time and cut it down yourself it still would cost you a good 200 bucks to rent a stump grinder and doing all the labor yourself once again. Not worth it in my opinion. If it were me if I could find someone that has value in the tree and be will remove it for free and call it a day(I’m guessing it’s won’t happen). I think you’ll have a hard enough time doing that to be honest with you as most people are in the business to make a profit and want to double dip on it to begin with. My buddy does this type of work charging to remove the tree and sells it afterwards. He says it’s to pay for his liability insurance, gas, tools, and hired labor. I have to agree with him. Most contractors bid on jobs like this on purpose so they can try and double dip on their margins to make it worth their time. If you call some tree removal services You’ll probably find out that some that won’t be interested in doing the job for that reason. The reason is if the tree is only worth $200 to begin with most are not likely going to volunteer their labor for free to remove the tree and grind your stump when they could just go out and buy one. Your best bet is to find somebody who is already invested thousands of dollars worth in wood working tools that would find value on your tree. Hate to be a negative rock but it sounds like you’re trying to make a profit on your tree and get it removed for free. No offense, but It sounds like a harebrained scheme I come up with when I have too much time on my hands. Lol.

If you had a forest of trees that someone would be excited about to process you might have some interest but one tree probably isn’t going to draw any interest to a tree buyer. It’s like calling McDonald’s and telling them you have one cow for sale. Good luck on your venture and I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. It sounds like something I would try and do.lol hate to be a negative rock but in the long run I bet you end up paying to have it removed.

[oldred]

If the tree is only worth $200 I would trade it for somebody to cut it down, remove it, and grind up your stump. It cost me more than that to remove a pine tree of similar size from my front yard. So in my opinion if you can get somebody to remove that tree and grind up your stump you got paid for your tree.

Yep totally agree and that's been the point all along, the tree is to be removed regardless it's what becomes of it after that is the question. Is it to be cut into firewood without even trying to salvage valuable pieces? We all know there is a lot of work involved but that's going to be true regardless of whether or not it's salvaged or burned, can it be sold to a mill? Depending on the circumstances in which it was grown then maybe or maybe not? Would a private individual on the lookout for valuable wood (like me! :-D) be willing to remove it for the wood or even pay a small sum depending on the wood involved? Again maybe or maybe not but the question all along has simply been what to do with it, pay someone to remove it, cut it for firewood and quite possibly waste some very valuable wood or try to find someone (or even a local mill) to remove it for salvage or even pay a few dollars for it.

Depending on the area the OP may very well have no other options to either cutting it down and deposing of it himself or maybe paying a private party or a commercial business to remove it. However just a bit of effort to make it known he is looking for someone to remove this tree could save him a lot of work and/or money and save some very valuable wood to boot (not to mention making someone else quite happy to have gotten it)!

[country gent]

Cured and cut into suitable pieces may add value. It allows the grain and figure to be seen. Even on rough cut a little water wiped on really shows what it is. Walnut is one that price is very dependent on grain and figure. A blank Matching 2 piece with fine sharp grain some reds purples and greens can bring big money. Alot of te high grade finest walnut was lost in WW1 and WW2 during the wars shelling and bombings. I have seen blanks for High end shotguns and rifles that were several thousand dollars in the rough. You can be surprised by some Yard trees grain and figure. But they are a bigger risk.

[Petrol & Powder]

Cured and cut into suitable pieces may add value. It allows the grain and figure to be seen. Even on rough cut a little water wiped on really shows what it is. Walnut is one that price is very dependent on grain and figure. A blank Matching 2 piece with fine sharp grain some reds purples and greens can bring big money. Alot of te high grade finest walnut was lost in WW1 and WW2 during the wars shelling and bombings. I have seen blanks for High end shotguns and rifles that were several thousand dollars in the rough. You can be surprised by some Yard trees grain and figure. But they are a bigger risk.

No sane man is going to pay you for the "privilege" of cutting down that tree on the outside chance that may be just valuable enough to recoup to cost of a crew and equipment.

Based on the OP description of the tree, I'm not sure it even has one good sawmill log in it.

I think you get the tree on the ground, see if there's any value at all in the trunk and cut the rest for firewood.

Back when I was heating with wood, I would cut down trees for friends in exchange for the firewood. Even then, I didn't take the debris. If you wanted me to take everything away - you had to pay me for that work.

I know loggers and arborists that make their living working with trees and they absolutely will not pay you for the "privilege" of that labor and use of their equipment.

tripplebeards hit the nail on the head.

[oldred]

You can be surprised by some Yard trees grain and figure. But they are a bigger risk.

I certainly was surprised, at first anyway, by what I found. For years I had salivated over fancy walnut blanks (even as far back as looking at them in my Herters catalogs!) and by the prices I assumed this kind of wood must be rare but regardless I could not spend $500 for a really nicely figured black walnut blank and some are even more than that. The first fork I cut was from a modest "yard tree" that was about 24" at the base, not a large tree, and while I managed to waste some wood because of the learning curve involved in cutting I got two really nice pieces, one of which is pictured on that little Highwall style rifle. Just for a raw blank the equivalent of that one on Ebay will go for hundreds of dollars and they do sell almost as soon as they are listed, I have never sold any and don't intend to but it sure is tempting sometimes at the prices some of these things can bring.

Cut properly a good fork of average size, such as the 24" tree mentioned here, a person can expect to get (barring no rot, trapped bark or insect damage) two decent blanks with figure on one side and one with good figure on both sides, the blank with both sides figured will be sandwiched between the other two. The older and larger the tree the better color and grain structure will usually be but unless a tree is really so small the fork is mostly just sapwood there are usually a couple of nice blanks lurking in there just begging to be sold or shaped into a stock!

[oldred]

I think you get the tree on the ground, see if there's any value at all in the trunk and cut the rest for firewood.


If there is a fork of any size at all it can easily be worth more than a log from a small trunk, that's the part that's so often wasted for firewood because a person doesn't know or care what they have. It truly is a real shame for someone to cut up nicely figured black walnut and burn it!

[Edward]

Unless theres crotch/stump wood (figured) most of what you have is the white wood surrounding the heartwood (dark) and that small a diameter its not worth sending the truck . Most of the time we cut anything under 32 '' for firewood as our east coast wood is fast growing and unless there"s crotches it"s relatively soft often times found with tulip (poplar). At least in the 46 yrs of owning a tree business in NYS thats what we found ,perhaps your tree is the exception . Whats the diameter 25-30 ft up will tell you a lot/Ed

[Edward]

I think a lot more such trees would get removed by interested folks if they knew about them, just getting word out on some sort of social media could possibly yield such results. I for one am always on the look-out locally for such trees but sadly I usually only hear about them being cut for firewood.Unless their insured you are crazy to let anyone on your property with a chainsaw if they survive they might be owning everything you have ! 46 yrs in a tree business I"ve more than once sent a crew out after the adjusters left to remove the tree Tom/Dick and Harry left on/in the house/just sayin Ed

[oldred]

I think some are missing the point REGARDLESS of how the tree is removed or who cuts it down just don't cut valuable figured wood for firewood! I have definitely seen this more than once, even back last fall, a pile of totally ruined walnut that otherwise would/could have been highly desirable to someone and worth WAAAAAAY more than just firewood! It make me sick to see a logger ruin a valuable piece of crotch wood by cutting it too short just to get an extra 8 or 10 inches of the trunk, they quite obviously don't have a clue as to what they are ruining/throwing away. I don't care what ANYBODY says it's a shame to cut up potentially hundreds of dollars worth of high quality stock grade wood for $10 worth of firewood and it doesn't take a huge 100 year old tree to yield such wood! The stocks I posted came from relatively small trees and yes the heartwood in the trunk was rather small in one of them but where it parts at the fork it was plenty wide enough where the feathered grain was at the merged part of the upper trunks.

I know what I have drying, already dry and some already carved into stocks and I also know what the tree was, how solid it is, what it's worth and what similar quality blanks sell for and what would have happened to this wood had I not acquired it, not a single piece came from a large older tree which would usually yield even more valuable pieces -unfortunately even these more often than not get thoughtlessly ruined. I personally cut the forks I have managed to salvage using a chainsaw with a rip chain and it takes little more effort to do than cutting and splitting the piece into less than ten bucks worth of firewood, come to think of it after taking a $200 stock blank out of it the rest can still be used for firewood!

To each his own I suppose.

[MaryB]

I helped a friend log out and rough cut into planks 10 huge pines off his property that had to go(they were in what was going to be a power lie right of way). Power company would have slash and burned them... We made a lot of nice lumber in 4 days with just a chainsaw! I got half and after planing it made some really nice furniture! And we got some 16 foot planks out of those trees! Alaskan chainsaw mill did the trick. He built a nice shed out of what he kept since I gave him pieces that didn't look nice.

[oldred]

Alaskan chainsaw mill did the trick


Those things are THE trick, I love my Alaskan mill! I put a 36" bar and rip chain on my 445 Husky saw (Yeah I know!) and it will rip through pine, popular and other soft woods at an amazing rate, hardwoods like oak take a little (lot actually) longer but it will still make short work of them. In just a few days I made enough by sawing some cedar boards from trees growing on my place here to pay for the saw and the mill, this was from trees that were being cleared anyway.

I just hate to see anything like that wasted.

[roadie]

As far as whether the tree has any real value, it depends a lot on what kind of life it's lived. Growing in a back yard, and probably protected, doesn't give it a lot of chance at having a great amount of figure. Whereas a tree fighting to stay alive for those same years will show that struggle in figure and color. The fork/crotch wood will show some, but the rest may be quite plain, and to me, not worth the effort of downing and cutting slabs.

I would definitely find out what it had, but the OP obviously can't, or doesn't want to. Not everyone is comfortable using a chainsaw. Now, getting it cut down and removed for free is pretty high hopes. There's just not enough there for a company to be interested.....and they generally don't do free......but if a private person cuts it, there's the question of liability if something goes wrong. Who foots the bill if it ends up doing some damage?

[Lloyd Smale]

you might get fair money if you have a dozen of them but its probably pretty hard to justify a logger to haul all this equiptment to your place to cut one tree. Maybe if it was French walnut but black walnut is pretty common. it can go from nice figure to no better then birch from one tree to another standing right next to each other. Also if it is a GOOD tree the stump wood is some of the most valuable so the logger is going to need to backhoe to get that out and you or he will need to fix your yard afterward. Not to many people plant one walnut tree for wood. Most do it for walnuts. Some will say do it yourself but even that is going to be a gamble. Your not going to know till the boards are cut whether its furniture grade or veneer grade or not. That and when you just drop it with your chain saw you risk destroying the good wood when it crashes to the ground because the most figured wood is the weakest.

[blackthorn]

Two comments: First, if you are at all interested in chainsaw mills, there is/was an excellent book called Chainsaw Lumbermaking written by Will Malloff that has plans for making your own Mill. I made two of them from bits of scrap steel that worked very well. The only real expense was the chainsaw(s).

Second, depending on the location of the tree in relation to what may be damaged when it falls you might be able to push it over/out with a backhoe or pull it over using a couple of snatch-blocks and ropes. The advantage to pulling it over is that with proper placement of the snatch-blocks, you can mostly control where the tree will land. My son and I pulled 18 pine trees to clear an area to build my cabin on using the block/rope method. All those trees were over 12 inches in diameter and had large tap roots at least 4 feet into the soil. We attached a snatch-block to the base of a large tree (in the direction we wanted the tree to fall). Next we hung a second block as high as we could get it up the trunk of the tree we wanted out. Then we ran a rope through the block on the tree, back to the tail-hold and attached it securely. The free end of the rope was then fed through the block on the tail-hold tree and attached to the trailer hitch on the truck. A few back and forth (rocking motion) using the truck got the tree out, root and all. This method uses the tree's own weight to lever it out. All 18 trees were on the ground in under 2 hours with only the cutting off the root masses left to do.