Black Walnut giveaway with conditions

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Jim Murphy

New User
Fern HollowMan
Yesterday, I was helping a friend deliver presents and met a gentleman who has two black walnut trees he wants taken down. They are located in the back yard of a home near Lake Royale, just east of Bunn, NC. By sheer eyeball guess from 20' away, one is 12" dbh and the other maybe 16" dbh. He will give the wood to whomever will take the trees down and clean up the slash, BUT the cutter must provide a certificate of insurance because the trees are close enough to damage the house in the event of a major ruh-roh. The wife is concerned about damage to adjoining trees from the top of the larger one, and feels that the larger tree should be topped before felled.

I've done a little research, and my friend Google suggests that these trees contain about 200bf of lumber based on one good log each. I've contacted Jeff and he says he can load 'em and slice 'em. I didn't ask and Jeff didn't say how much $$$, other than 'reasonable."

From my past experience at paying insured cutters, the cost of taking them down would almost equal their value, but I was probably ripped off by the cutters.

Wall Lumber sells 100bf bundles of log run walnut for $195.00. His bundles are kiln dried, but these trees would need to go into a kiln or air dry. Seems to me that this might be more trouble than it's worth.

However, if there are any NCWoodworkers who are interested in undertaking this project, email me jim@murphygeomatics.com and I'll give you the name and number of the tree owner. If you do want to do this, I'd like to watch and perhaps take one 4/4 slab home just to play with. (Finder's fee, sort of)

And, a question for those who read this far... Can the larger branches be sliced on a bandsaw to make trim pieces or little boxes, or does the branch wood have some grain/composition issue that makes it unsuitable.

Merry Christmas to all, and I wish you each a most prosperous New Year, whatever your endeavors may be.

Jim
 

NCPete

New User
Pete Davio
cool offer! I think the issue with using branch wood for any sort of project you would like to have stay flat, is that the weight of the branch induces some incredible twist in the lumber when drying?
 
J

jeff...

Jim, Thanks for the email regarding this topic. I can give you my my cents of advise. What I've seen usually ends up happening. Is the tree own pays for someone (a tree service) to drop the trees. Two small trees like this shouldn't take anymore more than an hour or two to lay on the ground. The owner is then left with a tree service bill and cleanup.

Here's where you could jump in. Offer to clean up after the tree service leaves, cut up the larger branch sections into smaller chunks for turning blanks or fire wood, depending on what it looks like. Buck the logs and load them up on a trailer. For a little effort you'll have some turning blanks / fire wood and saw logs. Like I said in my email - I would be more than happy to come after the logs with my trailer. We could par buckle them on to the trailer and bring them back to my place to make some lumber. With your help and off loading the mill, I would charge you a very reasonable rate, basically what you think it's worth.

I shy away from dropping trees; I'll mess with them once there on the
ground. If you like, I'll come after the trees after their laying on the ground and do the clean up myself. I really hate to see lumber go to waste. I have a family that I give fire wood too, their good people but very poor, heat with wood and have several children. I also take loads of fire wood to the Durham rescue mission for time to time. Depending on what the logs look like, I would most likely make em into boards or turning blanks. As I also said in my email. I really don't like Black Walnut, carzy but true (personal preference), I keep a few figured boards laying around for pen blanks. But other than that, I would end up selling the lumber and giving away the firewood.

Let me know what you decide you want to do...

Thanks
 

Kyle

New User
Kyle Edwards
I NEVER drop trees near a house. Thats a sure way to have something go wrong and be out of business. 99% of the time the individual doesn't wish to pay to have them dropped as the fee can typically run 100's to 1000's of dollars due to the liability. The value of the wood is not in the tree but the finished product and MOST if not all trees near a homesite have metal in them reducing the value significantly. Walnut and cherry in the log typically runs .35-.65/ bf in the log at the MOST as the real cost is in the moving, sawmilling and drying. A normal log give a 40/30/30 yield. 40% FAS, 30% #1 common and the last 30% #2 or less.
 
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