Laburnum tree wood free in situ NR18

[laburnumNR18]

I have a small Laburnum tree with two straight lengths that might be useful for wood turners.

It would be a small job for an able bodied person  to cut down. Wymondham Norfolk

[rapalaman]

So you’d like someone to cut it down for free? Doesn’t work like that I’m afraid.

Stick some pictures up and you may get someone local give you a price to cut this down. Keep the wood, season it for five years plus and if you’ve been lucky enough to stop it splitting- list as as wood turning blanks on eBay. You may just about cover your costs or make a small profit - up to you to decide how much your time is worth

[ucoulddoit]

I suspect ‘deals’ like that don’t happen very often, but I’ve done it and no regrets. The householder had trimmed all the branches from two cherry trees using a handsaw and cleared it all away. Must have taken them quite a while to do it. But they couldn’t tackle the two trunks which were about 16 inches diameter by 4 1/2 feet long, so a reasonable size for a hobby woodworker. Took me maybe 20 minutes to cut them at ground level with a small chainsaw and load them into the back of an estate car to get them home.

 

My avatar is a hall table made using one of these trees.

 

Andrew

[devon TWiG]

I have done a few like that , no brash removal etc ....if both sides are happy no problems !!

[Macpherson]

I'm also happy to remove a garden tree here and there locally, they get daylight and I get firewood.. no cash changes hands and everyone's happy.

They nearly always drag the brash off for burning and by the time I'm done I'll get a beer at the bonfire.

 

I don't usually get much of a size worth milling but last November I took down a fairly decent Birch about about 18" dbh which produced some nicely figured boards.

 

I think the mentality of folk that do small time opportunist milling is that when we see a tree we see products or building materials as well as firewood and are happy to do a bit of graft to get them free ... as the other thread said it's great to use your own stuff to make fings wiff 👍   Nowhere near Norfolk tho🙂

 

 

[ucoulddoit]

I guess the value of ‘logs’ is often over estimated by folk who are more used to seeing the price of dried planks. As an example of the difference in values, the picture below is one of three apple logs I bought from a tree surgeon a few years ago for £20 each. They were 22 inches diameter by 4 feet long. Biggest apple trees I’d ever seen. About 10 cubic feet per log which equates to £2 per cu ft for green round timber. What would 30ish cubic feet of this size and quality of milled apple slabs be worth now that it’s dry? Well into 4 figures I’d guess, if you could find a buyer. But this is for my own use.

 

 

Interestingly, the tree surgeon / firewood merchant was clearing an entire orchard of several hundred trees, and he was paying the orchard owner to do this………! Is apple firewood valuable? He was selling off the last of the butts to woodworkers as he’d already got the quantity of firewood needed to make it a profitable contract.

 

Andrew

[Scuttlefish]

I occasionally take down trees for free if its local and dead easy access, plus if the wood is something I really want for wood turning or veneer. It means I often get to know about something special before it gets reduced to firewood or tipped.