Quartersawn Oak price?

[Mikesmill]

Can I have some advice please?

I've cut some quartered oak into slabs and there's at least 3, true quartersawn 3 inch slabs at 6 foot long, 2 foot wide one end and 3 foot at the other, per quarter. The windblown tree, from the gardens on the Drax Estate in Dorset, was over 500 years old.

When I cut the other three quarters of the original log, I anticipate having twelve of these slabs, and plenty of riftsawn ones at the same thickness, and 2 inch.

I'm considering paying to have them professionally kiln dried, but have no experience of if that's a good idea/worth it. 

I've researched how much to sell them for and can only come up with a guesstimate of £65 per linear board foot, or £130 a square foot - is that too much?

Thanks in advance

[axehaircut]

130/square foot? Or cubic

[Forest2Furniture]

1 hour ago, Mikesmill said:

Can I have some advice please?

I've cut some quartered oak into slabs and there's at least 3, true quartersawn 3 inch slabs at 6 foot long, 2 foot wide one end and 3 foot at the other, per quarter. The windblown tree, from the gardens on the Drax Estate in Dorset, was over 500 years old.

When I cut the other three quarters of the original log, I anticipate having twelve of these slabs, and plenty of riftsawn ones at the same thickness, and 2 inch.

I'm considering paying to have them professionally kiln dried, but have no experience of if that's a good idea/worth it. 

I've researched how much to sell them for and can only come up with a guesstimate of £65 per linear board foot, or £130 a square foot - is that too much?

Thanks in advance

I think you must mean £130 cubic foot and that's a bit steep but if you can get it, well done you.

If they were longer boards you my be in with a chance of getting that price but 6' is a short board in furniture terms.

[Mikesmill]

3 hours ago, Forest2Furniture said:

I think you must mean £130 cubic foot and that's a bit steep but if you can get it, well done you.

If they were longer boards you my be in with a chance of getting that price but 6' is a short board in furniture terms.

Thanks, yes I did mean cubic foot (am still learning how to work it out this way).

Do you have any idea how much I should price them at?

[Big J]

3 inch is a bit thicker than I would have cut it. You have to think about what the end use of it will be, and quarter sawn oak is usually used in such a way as to display it's figure. So table tops, counter tops, panelling etc. I would have cut a mixture of 32mm, 41mm and 54mm personally. 

 

Secondly, the boards are short. This counts against them, as does the weak medulary ray figure and the brown rot. 

 

Realistically, I wouldn't be pricing them much above normal oak. 6-7 years ago I had some really nice QS oak. One batch of standard and one batch of brown. The standard went out at £45/CF, the brown £48/CF. That was kiln dried.

[Mikesmill]

24 minutes ago, Big J said:

3 inch is a bit thicker than I would have cut it. You have to think about what the end use of it will be, and quarter sawn oak is usually used in such a way as to display it's figure. So table tops, counter tops, panelling etc. I would have cut a mixture of 32mm, 41mm and 54mm personally. 

 

Secondly, the boards are short. This counts against them, as does the weak medulary ray figure and the brown rot. 

 

Realistically, I wouldn't be pricing them much above normal oak. 6-7 years ago I had some really nice QS oak. One batch of standard and one batch of brown. The standard went out at £45/CF, the brown £48/CF. That was kiln dried.

Okay, thanks. Back to the drawing board it is

[Big J]

1 hour ago, Mikesmill said:

Okay, thanks. Back to the drawing board it is

I wasn't trying to be overly negative. God knows I've overblown my own expectations on countless logs. It's better to be realistic and it's best not to sit on stock where possible. If you're selling it green, £25/cf would be about right, though I'd settle for £20

[Squaredy]

5 hours ago, Big J said:

3 inch is a bit thicker than I would have cut it. You have to think about what the end use of it will be, and quarter sawn oak is usually used in such a way as to display it's figure. So table tops, counter tops, panelling etc. I would have cut a mixture of 32mm, 41mm and 54mm personally. 

 

Secondly, the boards are short. This counts against them, as does the weak medulary ray figure and the brown rot. 

 

Realistically, I wouldn't be pricing them much above normal oak. 6-7 years ago I had some really nice QS oak. One batch of standard and one batch of brown. The standard went out at £45/CF, the brown £48/CF. That was kiln dried.

I think Big J is about right, although I would also say 3 inch clear Oak is ideal for window frames, and the 6ft length will be fine for many (but not all) of these.  Once air dried for 3 years it should fetch £40 or maybe £50 per cubic foot as good joinery Oak.

 

Kiln drying is possible but really only once it has air dried.  It can be dried now but would take maybe 4 months in a kiln and the cost would be huge, as it must be done very carefully to avoid checking and honeycomb.

 

I used to sometimes sell clear unseasoned Oak for various purposes and I used to charge £30 per cubic foot.  These days I air dry it but it is a long old process.  The bottom line is good quality unseasoned Oak is available easily from France at around £17 per cubic foot if buying a lorry load (I might be a little out of date I admit but not much) so the real value is in fully dried timber.

[Mikesmill]

3 inch is a bit thicker than I would have cut it. You have to think about what the end use of it will be, and quarter sawn oak is usually used in such a way as to display it's figure. So table tops, counter tops, panelling etc. I would have cut a mixture of 32mm, 41mm and 54mm personally. 
 
Secondly, the boards are short. This counts against them, as does the weak medulary ray figure and the brown rot. 
 
Realistically, I wouldn't be pricing them much above normal oak. 6-7 years ago I had some really nice QS oak. One batch of standard and one batch of brown. The standard went out at £45/CF, the brown £48/CF. That was kiln dried.

So would 32, 41 and 54mm be good cuts to go with for the other 3 quarters of the butt?

[Big J]

If you are chainsawmilling, I wouldn't go thinner than 41mm just for waste, but otherwise yes. I can't quite see from the photos but are you true quarter sawing it?