how much should i pay

[se7enthdevil]

hi all,

as title really i need to know how much anyone else would pay for 5 sticks of norway maple 20"-26" diameter by about 4m long.

 

they look nice and clean other than the forks at the top of each stick.

 

 

i've never bought trees before and wish to know what it will cost me

 

any advice is appreciated and thanks in advance.

[Timmy C]

Hi,

 

I'm a fellow turner and could only afford £50 to £100 max for each stick before I would not make a profit.

The timber may be of greater value where you are though.

 

Cheers, Tim

[Ian Leach]

I would pay what ever the roadside price is for cord at a push firewood prices.

 

100 - 150 I would offer

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

[Big J]

About £3 a hoppus foot would be fair for them, given that they are nice and clean for the most part, but include a reasonable amount of much lower grade stock. So averaged out at 23" for each stem, you are talking 147 cubic foot and £441 for the lot (roadside, I'd expect to have to pay for delivery on top of that).

 

I suppose the difficulty in making money from them is that for a turner, you have a massive amount of wastage compared to someone like myself who would just cut it through and through and recover 85% of the volume of the log.

 

Jonathan

[Big J]

One of the things that is worth mentioning is that it doesn't benefit you in the long term to pay too little for your timber. If you can build up a good relationship with your supplier by paying a fair price, they will always come back to you when they think that they have something that will be of interest to you.

[skyhuck]

One of the things that is worth mentioning is that it doesn't benefit you in the long term to pay too little for your timber. If you can build up a good relationship with your supplier by paying a fair price, they will always come back to you when they think that they have something that will be of interest to you.

 

Thats very good advice, its very easy just to sell every thing as fire would, to go to the hassle of separating out the better stuff you need to know your going to get a premium above fire wood price.

[agg221]

Thats very good advice, its very easy just to sell every thing as fire would, to go to the hassle of separating out the better stuff you need to know your going to get a premium above fire wood price.

 

This is true enough, but the other practical point is that for milling you want larger diameter butts, which are more of a pain for firewood processing.

 

For the supplier it depends on how much wood they have to work with - if they have no shortage then selling the larger diameter stuff for milling works as your overall productivity goes up. If you're short on material then you will make more overall from firewood (but don't forget that selling firewood you need to include your processing labour, whereas selling a butt whole you are then free to go off and do something else.

 

Steve - don't forget you also need to factor in milling costs when considering if it's viable. The options are to see if you can convince a larger mill to take them which will be quick and may allow you to do it in a single day's transport hire (hi-ab with driver is about £65/hr) but they are often reluctant due to the risk of metal, or to get a portable mill in. If using a portable mill, for your use I would look for someone with a swing mill and do it where they lie as although they're smaller than this would normally be used for it would be the quickest way to break them down accurately. Have you got log handling equipment available where they're being milled? If so, easy and you might just get through them all in two days. Otherwise you will probably need an extra day to get them milled - reckon on about £350/day.

 

Alec