Purple Heart value ??

[Johnsond]

Hi All. 
Might be getting the chance to get hold of a substantial quantity of Purple and Green Heart  piles. I’m aware of the issues regarding milling/cutting such a hard wood etc but just curious if anyone has any knowledge of the value and markets out there for it. 
Cheers 

[trigger_andy]

Ohhhh, be interested in buying some off of you if you get any. 

[Squaredy]

2 hours ago, Johnsond said:

Hi All. 
Might be getting the chance to get hold of a substantial quantity of Purple and Green Heart  piles. I’m aware of the issues regarding milling/cutting such a hard wood etc but just curious if anyone has any knowledge of the value and markets out there for it. 
Cheers 

A lot depends on the condition of the beams.  Even if they are full of holes and with nails etc they are potentially desirable.  

 

As you say, the challenge is finding someone willing to de-nail and mill them.  Sometimes it takes so long the cost of this is as much as the timber is worth.

 

And of course the other thing I am sure you know about is you need to find customers.  And if it is a lot of timber, it may take years to find enough customers to take it all.

 

Personally I would value both species at around £30 per cubic foot - but this is de-nailed.  If selling as beams some people will not mind some nails of course.

[Johnsond]

2 hours ago, trigger_andy said:

Ohhhh, be interested in buying some off of you if you get any. 

No probs Andy if it comes off I’ll put some aside no probs. 

[Johnsond]

7 minutes ago, Squaredy said:

A lot depends on the condition of the beams.  Even if they are full of holes and with nails etc they are potentially desirable.  

 

As you say, the challenge is finding someone willing to de-nail and mill them.  Sometimes it takes so long the cost of this is as much as the timber is worth.

 

And of course the other thing I am sure you know about is you need to find customers.  And if it is a lot of timber, it may take years to find enough customers to take it all.

 

Personally I would value both species at around £30 per cubic foot - but this is de-nailed.  If selling as beams some people will not mind some nails of course.

Luckily the upper parts of the piles (6-7m) that are out of the tidal range are clean and essentially attachment or nail free. Milling it might be a challenge as all I have is the 130 woodlands and an 880 Alaskan set up. I’m sure the choice of blade is important !! I’ll happily take guidance on that.

[Squaredy]

14 minutes ago, Johnsond said:

Luckily the upper parts of the piles (6-7m) that are out of the tidal range are clean and essentially attachment or nail free. Milling it might be a challenge as all I have is the 130 woodlands and an 880 Alaskan set up. I’m sure the choice of blade is important !! I’ll happily take guidance on that.

Not sure I can advise you really except to say milling really old tropical hardwoods can be tricky.  I tried some Jarra a few months back (on my bandmill) - only 7 inch width of cut and it was hopeless - even with a new blade.  These mills are designed for milling fresh unseasoned timber - not dense woods that have been hardening for 40 years.

 

Only word of advice I could offer would be to try and get hold of a sample and try it! 

[timbernut]

Think you need to do it on a mill with a wide band as narrow bands deviate too much, a good friend of mine had about 4000 pilings 20 years ago, all sorts of species but mostly tropic hardwoods, it was a steep learning curve! Good luck with them.

[trigger_andy]

2 hours ago, Johnsond said:

No probs Andy if it comes off I’ll put some aside no probs. 

Cheers Dave!

[spuddog0507]

I got my hands on some Green heart several years ago, and all i can say is never again 2 runs with 660 n alaskan sharpen up 2 runs again and sharpen up, i spent more time sharpening up than i did cutting, timber is old very dense and if its been in salt water like mine had there was a lot of grit on the timber that was hard to get rid of, value as a finished product ? serch your market first and see if any one wants to buy it, and if there is any other timber for sale as well then you should get an idea, 

[trigger_andy]

Ive been speaking with a lad on the West Coast about this. He put me in contact with a Miller who Milled his Green 

heart and he found the blades that worked best where the Woodmizer Frozen Log ones. I'm looking back through my messages to see what the model number was. He said it was still a right challenge, but do-able.