# The golden walnut tree.



## Scruffy (Nov 24, 2017)

This whole mess, that I have peed off my wife’s 2 sister’s started about 3 months ago. My wife has 3  sisters, between 55 and 70 .
The one that mows my father in laws grass decided the walnut tree in his back  yard needed to go because it was messy.
Now listen my father in law is 99 years old and still lives by his self. That’s right 99 !,
   I do some wood working and felled quite a bit of timber . This tree is 32 in. Diameter 1 ft above the ground. Was asked what I would pay for it and I said 200.00  oh boy I was accused of being a thief and every thing else under the sun.
After 10 calls to lumber buyers the best the could eas 500.00 . That’s pay them 500.00 to take it down and clean up and leave the the stump.
Thanks ron


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## JPigg55 (Nov 25, 2017)

This hits home for me in that I don't understand what's happened to tree prices.
Some 30 years ago, a lumber company offered my wife's grandfather $500 for a black walnut tree. Turned out bad for them since it was hallow when they cut it down.
While I understand there's some risk with purchasing trees, what they offer now is an insult. I had a tree buyer come and look at some large, straight black walnuts I have on my place. He offered $50/tree for 10 trees.
I know these places take hardwoods like walnut and cut them into veneer rolls that sell for many thousands of dollars, yet they only want to pay peanuts. Just take a look at the price of walnut or cherry wood the next time you're at the lumber store.
I even offered to allow them to not pay for any trees that were bad and the best he offered was $75/tree. These were trees 32" plus in diameter and straight as an arrow for 25 plus feet.
For that price, I'd rather leave them to grow where they're at or cut them myself and hire in a portable sawmill for the lumber.


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## francist (Nov 25, 2017)

We don't have much for black walnut around here, only the odd tree on an old estate maybe. Can't beat it for colour sometimes though, especially if you can air dry it instead of sending to a kiln. Much nicer. This is from a tree I got wind of about thirty years ago, made a few really nice bowls from it.

-frank


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## woodtickgreg (Nov 25, 2017)




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## woodtickgreg (Nov 25, 2017)




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## woodtickgreg (Nov 25, 2017)

I am a wood worker as well, I too have felled my share of timber, and I chainsaw mill my own lumber for my own use. it is very labor intensive. Then it has to be moved to the side as you mill it, then moved again to load into my truck to bring it home, then moved again to get it into the drying shed,  then it has to be stickered and stacked for drying it is very labor intensive. Then I air dry the lumber for a year or more depending on the thickness that I milled it. And that just to get the lumber from the logs to the shed. Do you have any idea how heavy a 2" thick 3' wide 8' long soaking wet board is? Cutting the tree down and cleaning up the debris is another story in itself. and with urban lumber you have to plan on hitting nails and taking time to resharpen your chains. milling with a chainsaw mill itself is very physically demanding, and the equipment is very expensive to purchase and then there is the maintenance, parts, and fuel for the saws. The cost are even higher for a guy with a portable bandmill. Milling lumber for my own use and for my hobby is fun and a great way for me to acquire wood for my own personal use, but it would be damn near impossible to make any money at it with a chainsaw mill, and it would take a lot of logs just to break even with a bandmill. With a chainsaw mill I can mill a log where it falls and carry it away a board at a time, with a bandmill you have to get the 5,000lb or 10,000lb log to the mill to saw it. People never really understand the cost and labor that is involved in milling wood to make a marketable product and get it to market, let alone to use it. Sheesh!........I'm glad its just a hobby for me. That's my old chainsaw mill in my avatar with a couple of smaller boards I milled. The sawmill has a new $1,200 powerhead on it now because milling killed the old powerhead, just flat out wore it out!
I NEVER PAY FOR LOGS!!!!


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## f350ca (Nov 25, 2017)

I try to use reverse economics when I run my home made bandsaw mill. After I've got the free logs home, which involved hooking up the hay wagon to the tractor, driving half an hour to the site (more than a half hour forget it), loading the logs with the forks, the half hour drive back, unloading the logs, and putting the tractor and wagon away, I still have the hard work ahead. Then its get the first log on the mill without breaking the mill or the tractor. Take a cut or two, then if its a big log take the log off the mill and roll it on the forks cause it's too heavy and awkward to roll on the mill. Then put it back and square it up, couple of cuts and repeat till I have a square cant. Then its easy sawing, unless of course I hit a nail, or two or three. Then edge the slabs. After that its sticker it in a shed.
Of course you can't give the slabs away so I haul them to the dump, once or twice a year you shovel out a trailer or two of sawdust that gets hauled to the dump
But then I can say wow sawed 500 feet of pine, some select some common grade probably would have to pay $500 for that.
Problem is I may or may not need that lumber in a year or two when its dry.
Thankfully I don't pay union wages to a crew, don't pay insurance, do my own maintenance, just have fuel oil and parts expenses and ignore the capital cost of the machinery I'm wearing out.
Get a mill and make a fortune.
BUT there is a great feeling of satisfaction when I give a customer a piece of furniture I made from a free log.

Greg


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## BGHansen (Nov 25, 2017)

We had limited foresting done on our 64-acres about 10 years ago.  Idea was more conservation than clear-cutting.  Our guy worked for the State of Michigan and used a rule of thumb of 10-12 18" diameter trees per acre.  We had over 20 in some areas so the big trees were competing for the same light.  Ours were primarily hard maples, a few black walnuts; had just over a 100 trees taken at about $300 per tree.

We're in "maintenance" mode at this point.  Plan is to take 10% of the trees every 10 years so the entire woods turns over every 100 years.  Just had a guy quote us the same $300 per tree for the maples and walnuts, so timber prices are holding in mid-Michigan.

Bruce


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## woodtickgreg (Nov 25, 2017)

@f350ca  I get great satisfaction out of taking a project from tree to finished project.


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## HBilly1022 (Nov 25, 2017)

I say let the complainers do the calling and see what kind of deal they can get. Then you have the right to match the price, at your discretion. Can't be any  more fair than that.

I agree with what others have said. People don't seem to value the time, effort, risk and cost involved in turning trees to lumber. Years ago when we first moved to the country, I bought a little bandsaw mill and was super excited to cut down trees and turn it into lumber for wood working projects or building supplies for my own use. One of our new neighbors stopped by and seen the mill. His eyes lit up and asked if I would cut him some 1" x 6" trim boards for his house. Wanting to be a good neighbor I said sure if he brought me the trees. He brought over some dead trees that were cracked, some to the core, and the cracks ran radially along the length of the trees. Some of the trees were only 6" diameter too. I milled it all up for him but there were a lot of boards that came out cracked and were simply a waste of time to produce. I ended up giving him 100 8' 1" x 6" boards and 2" x stock from what was left over.  

He later complained that some of the boards I cut had shrunk. A few days later I'm still thinking about the nerve of this guy complaining about the free work I did for him and he shows up at my place with a trailer load of logs and tells me he wants some 2" x 4" and 2" x 6" boards cut from these and he needs them right away. The nerve of some people!!! I am in the middle of building my house (like him) and he wants me to drop what I'm doing and cut him these boards. I told him I was too busy and it would have to wait. About a week later I took a day out of my house build and cut him a bunch of 2" x material, using 1/2 of the logs he brought over and I decided his payment for my work would be for me to use the other 1/2 of the logs for myself. After that he went elsewhere and paid for someone to mill his lumber. Now he complains to me about the lumber he gets milled elsewhere.


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## JPigg55 (Nov 25, 2017)

BGHansen said:


> We had limited foresting done on our 64-acres about 10 years ago. Ours were primarily hard maples, a few black walnuts; had just over a 100 trees taken at about $300 per tree.  Bruce



This reminded me, about 15 years ago we sold some timber to help pay for some much needed new fencing. Loggers came in and just took white oaks mainly off of about 25-30 acres of timber. Paid us $10,000 for the trees.


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## Scruffy (Nov 25, 2017)

J pigg you,d be lucky to see half that now.to wood tick, yep this is a yard tree can about guarantee destroying 2 if not 3   32 inch chains not dulling them i’m Talking breaking teeth off or breaking the chain. Funny how grown in fence wire a clothes line hooks will do that..
Thanks ron


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## Scruffy (Nov 25, 2017)

Wood tick I saw that video when this all started. Wife’s 2 sisters still didn’t get the picture. I thought it was funny!! Nope i’m The bad guy and love it. They now don’t bring things over for me to fix.
Thanks ron


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## ACHiPo (Nov 25, 2017)

woodtickgreg said:


> I am a wood worker as well, I too have felled my share of timber, and I chainsaw mill my own lumber for my own use. it is very labor intensive. Then it has to be moved to the side as you mill it, then moved again to load into my truck to bring it home, then moved again to get it into the drying shed,  then it has to be stickered and stacked for drying it is very labor intensive. Then I air dry the lumber for a year or more depending on the thickness that I milled it. And that just to get the lumber from the logs to the shed. Do you have any idea how heavy a 2" thick 3' wide 8' long soaking wet board is? Cutting the tree down and cleaning up the debris is another story in itself. and with urban lumber you have to plan on hitting nails and taking time to resharpen your chains. milling with a chainsaw mill itself is very physically demanding, and the equipment is very expensive to purchase and then there is the maintenance, parts, and fuel for the saws. The cost are even higher for a guy with a portable bandmill. Milling lumber for my own use and for my hobby is fun and a great way for me to acquire wood for my own personal use, but it would be damn near impossible to make any money at it with a chainsaw mill, and it would take a lot of logs just to break even with a bandmill. With a chainsaw mill I can mill a log where it falls and carry it away a board at a time, with a bandmill you have to get the 5,000lb or 10,000lb log to the mill to saw it. People never really understand the cost and labor that is involved in milling wood to make a marketable product and get it to market, let alone to use it. Sheesh!........I'm glad its just a hobby for me. That's my old chainsaw mill in my avatar with a couple of smaller boards I milled. The sawmill has a new $1,200 powerhead on it now because milling killed the old powerhead, just flat out wore it out!
> I NEVER PAY FOR LOGS!!!!


And don't forget the nails, bullets, etc. that can mess up a saw blade.  Nope, unless you've got pretty much pristine forest, you're not going to make any money selling a tree unless you pay to mill it yourself and sell the lumber.


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## Scruffy (Nov 25, 2017)

Wood tick ,did you buy an 088 or a 3120?
Thanks ron


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## woodtickgreg (Nov 26, 2017)

Scruffy said:


> Wood tick ,did you buy an 088 or a 3120?
> Thanks ron


The new powerhead is a husky 395. A friend has a 3120 that im trying to con him out of, lol. The saw in my avatar is an old McCulloch pm1000, it was made by partner in germany. it was a 100cc saw that was a lower rpm saw but had very high torque, it worked well for many years (like 20+) I used it in a firewood part of a landscape business for many years, then set it up on the granberg alaskan mill with a double ended bar and roller helper handle on the other end, has an aux oiler as well. ran this set up for many years and milled a ton of lumber. The saw finally had enough and the crank bearings failed and wiped everything out one day while I was milling, by the time I realized something was wrong it was to late and the damage was done. The new husky 395 is higher rpm and does a fine job.


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## RJSakowski (Nov 26, 2017)

Yet another facet to this gem is the risk involved in cutting large trees around buildings, power lines, and public roads.  I have felled easily a hundred large hardwoods over the course of more than forty years but hesitate when working around my buildings.  We had a large Norway maple in the yard and had once inquired with an arborist concerning felling the tree.  I was quoted $5K for the job.  The tree eventually came down on its own but pulled down a low voltage power line in the process. 

 We also had a large weeping willow in our yard, one trunk which was threatening the house.  I hired a neighbor who logs to take the tree out with me assisting.  He started at the top with me on the ground, using cables and a tractor mounted winch to steer limbs away from the house. When we got down to the main trunk, we still had 40 ft. and the trunk at the cut was 30" x 40".  It turned out to be hollow with about 2" of live wood in tension supporting the tree.  The tree was brought down without incident but it was the better part of a day and I still had a couple of day's work in cleaning up.  My neighbor said that had he known of the condition of the tree, he never would have taken the job.

Hardwoods are notorious for not falling where you want them to go.  Much more so than pines which are more symmetrical.  I would like to think that I am fairly good at reading a tree but when nearby property is at risk, I would opt for having a professional do the work.  We had a number of threatening trees around our buildings and an other neighbor who works for a landscaping firm offered to do the work.  He had the equipment and skill but no liability insurance so  we passed on that.  A summer storm brought down a number of the trees this year, fortunately with minor damage to the buildings and we plan on having the remaining few trees professionally removed this winter.

So I would expect that paying $500 to have the tree removed is probably a bargain.  If a logger knew that he was bidding against others, I would expect him to make what he felt was a reasonable offer.  The tree may be worth a thousand or more delivered to the sawmill but the work, risk, and responsibility of delivering that tree could easily outweigh that value.


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