Timber prices

[wardenjohn]

After a bit of advice please. What is the best way of calculating the price to sell timber?

[slack ma girdle]

Volume, as it does not change, unlike weight.

[Chris Sheppard]

After a bit of advice please. What is the best way of calculating the price to sell timber?

 

Speak to someone like EuroForest or Tilhill and whatever they offer roadside, add a chunk to it and that's what you should get if you sell direct.

[agg221]

You've posted this in the milling forum. Are you thinking of selling butts or processed timber? Size, species, location will also all have a bearing, as will quantity.

 

If you can fill in some of the detail you'll get a more refined answer:001_smile:

 

Alec

[wardenjohn]

Ok, thanks. I manage a nature reserve and i have just made friends with a local joiners and they want to buy various lengths of harwood timber some of it will be milled up but some of it will be in rounds,the lengths vary as will the diameters. I just want an accurate way to calculate what to charge that reflects the market. It will be Ash and Oak mainly.

[Big J]

The best way to calculate the approximate sawn volume of a butt is to use the Hoppus Measure. The hoppus measure is 1/4 girth squared multiplied by length (all in inches) divided by 1728.

 

So as an example: A ten foot oak log has a girth of 120 inches - 30x30x120/1728=62.5 cubic foot.

 

It basically gives an allowance for wastage in sawing and has been used since the 18th century.

 

Pricing on the hoppus foot would usually be £2-5 for ash and £3-8 for oak depending on quality. Obviously burr oak would be much higher.

 

Jonathan

[agg221]

Basically, as Jonathan says.

 

There are a few points of detail you'll need to agree with your purchaser however.

 

If everything is a perfect cylinder then it doesn't matter where you measure. However, they'll taper, so the normal is to measure in the middle.

 

The measurement assumes the butts are straight, with no defects such as rot-holes from old branches - if they're not then you'll need to agree on an allowance.

 

You can see why you have to be careful on the above. Say you have a 2ft dia butt x 16ft long, with a gentle curve in it, causing a maximum deviation of 8ins. Clearly you can't make clear boards 16ft long, so it wouldn't be fair to calculate the volume as 36 Hoppus feet. If you based your calculation on maximum straight boards you could get out of it, you would calculate a girth based on the ellipse 24x16in, which gives a volume of 28 Hoppus feet. However, if the buyer only actually wanted 8ft maximum length, cutting it in half would halve the impact of the curve, so you end up with a volume (sum of the two lengths) of 33 Hoppus feet.

 

This may look complicated, but in practice the variation in price on the above is only about +/-£20 in £150, and it's handy to have a buyer, so my inclination would be to make the calculation in the way which is most favourable to the buyer. This will keep them happy, and mean they never feel they've been short-changed. It will also make them more inclined to bother with the slightly trickier bits, which will probably mean you sell more in the long run. The key however is to agree what method you are applying.

 

Alec