Black Walnut Value?

squisher

THE CALM ONE!!!!
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Sep 25, 2006
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Vernon, B.C.
Ok, I know it sucks starting this thread without a photo. But here it goes I showed up today to do some pruning on this nice big 'ole walnut but the customer(hotel) says they want it gone. Shed a big limb last weekend that almost landed on a rolls.

Well it's gotta be 28" DBH and holds that taper for probably 16'-18' of clear, straight sawlog. Now a tree like this is quite rare around here. I'm starting to poke around for buyers but I wanted to see if any of y'all here might have an idea on the value? I'm talking value of just having it sitting on the ground someone else pays me x amount of dollars and it's there baby for transporting.

I had four people offer to take it off my hands today for free while we were brushing it out.:lol:

So what's up with the Walnut in your opinion?
 
If you can get a couple of 16's out of it there's definitely some money there. Even small round wood is worth some.

Call up a few mills to get some pricing.
 
Two of my neighbors have mature ones, and I have several saplings. Problem is the friggin squirrels bury them everywhere. They also like to sit on my stoop and on the wires and eat the nuts, which leaves stains on my stairs and truck. Black Walnuts?..:big-no:
 
Haven't heard too much about Black Walnut in your area...pretty rare as you say. There are a number of factors in a tree's worth as a material for woodwork. Is the grain tightly packed, twist in the tree, color, grain figure..... How the bark looks can tell a lot, in terms of potential figure.

Usually trees cut when the water content is down will fetch more money.

As NeTree suggests, a mill, or somebody with knowledge to evaluate what you have there, is likely your best bet. Some high quality Walnut can fetch a lot of money, and 28" at the base is a very decent sized tree. I could probably sure use it.

Just a thought, a woodworker might want to give you more money than a mill, if it's a good tree. You might want to call around a bit, if you have the time.
 
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Yah I've got a few leads as to buyers here. A small mill that I sold my load of fir to earlier this year and a couple of guys that do high end woodworking. I was trying to get a feel for the value, bearing in mind of course every region is going to be different. I'd like to atleast have a rough idea of the value before some guy trys to rip me off for it. My uncle also knows some guys at a place in Vancity who build fancypants guitars that may be interested in it too so a call is going in there.

I was told it was a black walnut and beleived them as it's definetly a walnut but they're not really very common around here so I'm gonna do a little research to ID it for certain. Saturday I'm going back to finish it off so I'll grab some pics of it then.

I do have to have the wood gone by the end of the weekend so I may have to arrange to have it hiab'd up to my place. I'd be happy just putting some cash in my pocket and being rid of it though. My yard runeth over with wood. So somebody might get a good deal if they jump on it.

Thanks for the info so far.
 
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I gots no mill, no time, and no room. And I'd sure hate to learn to mill on a piece of wood like this. It's an amazing stick, prime for milling imo. I need to catch up not fall further behind. Booked straight through the weekend and saturday of next weekend and a full week beyond that. :)

It'll be sold to someone for something. I just have no idea how much. And any of the potential buyers aren't going to really know either because it's so uncommon here. Hardwoods are brutally heavy. I'm back to a spruce TD tomorrow, prickly but light.
 
I think this sold for a little more than 10K. Not with Calico, a broker found a buyer.
 

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There are buyers willing to pay for pickup. I don't know any personally.

Buy a Mill for Gods' sake, I thought every canadian got a mill at like ten years old.
 
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Nice! Don't cut the pull line eh!:lol:

Yah that's why I started this thread. I gots to research this action, I'm not giving this thing away.:/:
 
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Buy a Mill for Gods' sake, I thought every canadian got a mill at like ten years old.

:lol: We don't need our own personal mills there used to be tons of production mills around, now not so much.:(

Oh man my wife would flip if I ordered up a Lucas.:D
 
Firewood here is probably 350ish a cord, cured and dried with honey ham.

She would be stoked out of her mind with all the hand made furniture and flooring you could make all winter.
Sell it at the Renasaince faire.

That's not me in the picture, I was in the dodge pulling the line.
I climbed it and Shamrock dumped it.
I think the wedges were for just in cases.
 
Hell, just get a chainsaw mill, you could slab it out and sell the slabs if nothing else! And they are cheap!
 
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Hell if it's gonna get burned it'll go into the private collection. I'm sitting on plenty O firewood right now. I just set my price $200/cord delivered. Softwoods for sale here. Fir and spruce.
 
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She would be stoked out of her mind with all the hand made furniture and flooring you could make all winter.
Sell it at the Renasaince faire.

Flooring is taken care of. Check my avy, thats an african cherry. Gots that and mill run maple throughout my house that I layed and finished myself.8)

Andy I have considered an Alaskan mill. But like I said I need more projects like another freaking hole in the head.
 
Using a plunge cut (instead of a hinge) will preserve a lot of the wood. But you knew that...
Having it sold / organised before you fell it will be worth the log's weight in uhhh, well, ... worth it.
I've done the dance on waiting for guys to come pick up wood they were begging for, then they're nowhere to be found on the day of.
 
Around here you wouldn't get too much for it as this area is dead center of the "walnut belt ".However if the thing has nice figure on the bottom log it will fetch as much for gunstock blanks as the rest of the tree . With that in mind take it off right at the ground .--also if it has good solid crotch wood this can bring a premium also for crafts type people .

All that mouthfull said it would be lucky to fetch a hundred bucks here .A yard tree they won't even buy .
 
All that mouthfull said it would be lucky to fetch a hundred bucks here. A yard tree they won't even buy .
True dat, Al. It's kinda irksome when a customer asks how much they can get for their walnut tree ?!? Pshaw.
 
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