Black Walnut Tree

[Typ0]

I just cut down a black walnut I had in my yard that was standing dead. I'm looking at it having second thoughts about turning it into firewood.

I have another beautiful black walnut standing 61" around and at least 35' up to the first branch. The bark is immaculate and uniform.

Am reading all kinds of stuff about Walnut prices on the internet but this is the only place I am a member so wanted to post here. What is your opinion?

 

[kennyp2339]

Find a local mill and have them come out and look at it, if the guys attitude is like a kid in a candy store then you know you may have something. You don't have to sell it to him / her unless the money is real good

 

[bholler]

Id try to sell it black walnut really is not all that great for firewood.

 

[AmbDrvr253]

All you can do is ask. If they dont want it it becomes firewood.

 

[Jags]

Usually a mill will avoid yard trees. Especially if it is only one or two. Find an independent dude with a portable mill. It is probably your best chance.

As a side note: What I have seen/gathered and heard is that black walnut is "out of favor" now. Too dark for the current trends. The days of the $3000 veneer tree is pretty much gone. But you never know. It might be worth a few phone calls.

 

[peakbagger]

If you have use for the wood and are willing to pay up front to process it correctly then go ahead and try to get some high value (to you) wood out of it. Your choices are to drop it and saw it up into log lengths. Then run a metal detector the length of the logs, if you get beep and find metal you need to stop and reconsider. Any rot in the center is the same. Assuming the logs are clear you can try to sell the logs to a mill. Since you have less than a logging truck full plan on getting a car trailer and move the logs into the trailer for delivery to the mill. It highly unlikely that the mill would do a pickup with less than log load and if they do it will come right off the green price they pay you.

Alternatively you can find someone with portable mill to mill it on site. They charge 0.50 to 0.75 per board foot sawn and since you may not have a days worth of wood they will charge you a minimum fee to drive there and drive home. A tractor with forks or some other means of moving the logs around is highly recommended. You now need a place to stack the raw boards up off the ground and stickers to space out the wood. You also need to seal the ends. Then you get to let the wood air dry for about a year. You will end up with a mix of nice looking wood, standard wood and knotty/split/ugly wood. It looks nice but its not kiln dried so if you build anything with it its going to crack and warp far more than kiln dried wood. If you want it kiln dried there are rare specialty operations that will do contract drying. In small quantities I have heard $1 a board foot. They have to know what they are doing as each species needs a specific drying schedule. You also will need to transport it back and forth from the place you do your drying.

The only other alternative is if the logs are truly straight with zero defects and there is no trace of metal with a metal detector you can see if there are any veneer mills nearby. They are always on the lookout for good veneer logs and they can write a very generous check for the right logs and probably will pick them up. If they are landscape trees they tend to be far less likely to be veneer trees.

 

[ClintonH]

Sawmill retail for walnut here is ~$5.50/board foot. Find a guy with a portable mill (if you were in OH I'd be there). Good luck--sounds like a valuable tree to me.

 

[kennyp2339]

As a side note: What I have seen/gathered and heard is that black walnut is "out of favor" now. Too dark for the current trends

I hope there no going after my precious pine lol

 

[Farmboy707]

If it's 60" in diameter I'd sell to a mill or hire a guy to mill it into slabs for you that's totally worth it. If it was my tree I'd be slabbing it and drying it for a table.

 

[bholler]

If it's 60" in diameter I'd sell to a mill or hire a guy to mill it into slabs for you that's totally worth it. If it was my tree I'd be slabbing it and drying it for a table.

that was 61" circumference so radius is only about 20" still a pretty big walnut but not massive