Board Foot Wood

[Czech]

My dad has a real nice red oak that is coming down via the local power company. The first 35' is straight as an arrow with no branches, it's probably 30"
diameter at the bottom. Although I'd love to have it to burn, it's a pretty piece of wood for use other than that. How does one go about selling this for board foot wood?

 

[keyman512us]

My dad has a real nice red oak that is coming down via the local power company. The first 35' is straight as an arrow with no branches, it's probably 30"
diameter at the bottom. Although I'd love to have it to burn, it's a pretty piece of wood for use other than that. How does one go about selling this for board foot wood?

Still a few variables. One...Is it "on the side of the road"??? Most sawyers don't want "door yard" trees or "fenceline" trees.

Unless you know a "local sawyer" with a bandsaw rig...I wouldn't get too excited. Very few timber puchasers are going to go out of their way for one butt log.

You never know.... I would wait until it's on the ground before you get too excited though.

 

[nshif]

Unless you have a small milling operation nearby you probably wont find anybody interested in 1 tree. Its too expensive to send out a truck and a loader for 1 piece of lumber. You might get luckey and have a great firewood tree.

 

[Czech]

I smell my new oak bar top I guess, it is a nice tree. What about black walnut? I've heard stories about people making thousands from a few trees, but not sure if that is just urban bs....

 

[Burn-1]

If it was veneer grade there might be some money in it. Let's take 10% off the 30 inch guess and call it 27 inch average diameter, (being generous). With 35 feet, call it 8 foot logs with trim factors. International scale that's about 270 BF per log. I'm not sure where red oak veneer is for your area but I'm going to thow out a guess of $800/MBF.

Each log has .27 MBF @ $800/MBF = ~$216/ 8 foot log for a veneer grade log which will need care in taking down and good handling. So maybe there is some value in that case. But each MBF is equal to 3 cords so you'd have about three cords of good wood as well. I think Key has the right idea, there maybe someone local to you with a band rig who might buy it. Call your local county extension office. They might be able to help with timber or log buyers.

 

[karl]

How much is a band rig. Or how much would you pay for someone to cut it up for you? I would like to replace my paneling in the living room with real oak. I wouldn't mind saving wood for a few years to do it. I can work it once it's in boards.

 

[Burn-1]

(broken link removed to http://www.hud-son.com/bandmills.htm) would be a good place to start to get an idea at what a manual feed mill costs. There are lots of brands Wood-mizer is another one.

You can also usually find someone local who will come cut some lumber for you. If you look here you can find a sawyer who can come to you with a bandmill. It lloks like there a few in WV. I didn't even look at OH or KY but I know that's reasonably close to you as well. Good luck.