Milled oak price

[Birch]

Merry Christmas all!

 

I have a large oak tree which I've recently taken down for someone, I intend to have milled into boards, I have someone to mill it and someone who's potentially interested in buying some the boards.

I just don't have a very good idea of what their worth,

They'll be between 4 and 8 ft long, and 12 to 30 inches wide, and if the chap I have in mind has them he wants them 2 inch thick.

Any ideas what the asking price should be?

 

Thanks

[kinderscout]

Quality and looks is everything with the oak boards,I would cut the boards at 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 thick allowing for shrinkage and finishing.

A really nice board at 8' long 30"wide I would expect to get £80 to £100.

[agg221]

Assuming the quality is OK - nothing special in the grain but no major defects, I would take the following into account:

 

4ft is quite short.

12" is the narrower end, assuming this is because they are milled quite a long way out from the centre, through and through sawn, and therefore liable to cup.

8ft is a good length.

30" is a nice wide board for 'feature' use.

 

I would measure up cubic feet actually achieved once the tree is milled. I would do this as length x thickness and assuming relatively parallel sided boards, x minimum width on the narrower side, heartwood only. If not parallel sided it gets a bit more tricky if they are being used double waney edged as features for example. I would take all measurements in inches and divide through by 1728 to get cubic feet.

 

For green oak, I would regard £15/cube as the bottom end, £20/cube as a reasonable price. I wouldn't go lower than this as it wouldn't recover the costs relative to the risk taken in milling the tree (risk of potential defects) - you might win on one tree but on average you will lose when you get the 'bad one'.

 

If they are having the lot and there is a fair mix of board sizes across that range, I would be quite happy at £15/cube pre-sold. If most of the boards are the larger size and they want the small ones on top, I might go up to around £17.50/cube. If they are going to pick through the pile and choose the ones they want it would definitely be £20/cube as you will spend more time on this and the boards you are left with will be the lower value ones.

 

Alec

[Birch]

Thanks for the input chaps, very useful.

The guy who wants the timber is fairly clued up(more so than me).

Just wanted to have an idea what I should be asking for them(M3 or Ft3).

It's for furniture making so 4ft is just as useful to him, he did want a price for them in the round, & a price for my mate to mill them, but I think I'd rather offer them ready milled as would like to sell more to others in future,

I also have some large diameter sycamore, what sort of price should that fetch in 2and a quarter inch boards?

Thanks again

[se7enthdevil]

Thanks for the input chaps, very useful.

The guy who wants the timber is fairly clued up(more so than me).

Just wanted to have an idea what I should be asking for them(M3 or Ft3).

It's for furniture making so 4ft is just as useful to him, he did want a price for them in the round, & a price for my mate to mill them, but I think I'd rather offer them ready milled as would like to sell more to others in future,

I also have some large diameter sycamore, what sort of price should that fetch in 2and a quarter inch boards?

Thanks again

 

what diameter is the sycamore? over 30"?

[Birch]

Nah, 27 absolute max