advice and help please New too all this

[tilleytrees]

I was wondering what the best thing to do with the following and what the prices would be.

 

I have a number of large long butts in the yard consisting of :-

 

4 Oak butts between 20 to 26 ft

7 Oak butts from 12-18ft

2 large yew butts 8 ft

4 or5 ash butts 20 ft approx

1 robinia butt 6 ft by 4 ft

2 Holm oak butts 8 ft,

10 to 15 large marcocarpa 15 ft approx 3-5 ft

 

All in all about 1200 cubic ft

 

Most of it has been in the yard for 3-4 yrs and I need to do something with it this autumn.

 

I hope some one can advise

 

cheers

 

richard

[muttley9050]

Id like to buy the robinia butt from you and also a bit of oak/Holm oak. I will be on your neck of the woods in about 2 months if you can wait that long?

[tilleytrees]

Id like to buy the robinia butt from you and also a bit of oak/Holm oak. I will be on your neck of the woods in about 2 months if you can wait that long?

 

Thats great it sat in the yard for quite a while so 2 months more won' t hurt.

What I am after is what to do with it eg plank it or beam it up and what sizes etc

advice would be great.

I was thinking about possibly selling some And storing the rest and selling it later, I have lots of storage for it to be under cover.

[agg221]

In theory you will get more for it milled and seasoned than in the round.

 

In the long run, this is true, but unless you are milling to someone's cutting list, you are waiting for the right person to come along and buy from you, which then means they have to know you have timber for sale. This means time and effort, and money, on your part to advertise and handle customers. This is fine if you are happy to do so, but a pain if you aren't - at least you are going into it with your eyes open.

 

For the large oaks, I would track down your local timber framers and see if there is any interest. For the rest, I would plank it at 2" or 3". This will give the widest range of options. For anything over 2'6" I would seriously consider quartersawing to get more stable boards, although short, wide oak might be worth making slabs.

 

If you have the capability, converting it into an end product will make it more saleable as the buyer doesn't have to do anything then. This could be benches/tables from the durable timbers (oak, yew and robinia).

 

So long as you are realistic with your pricing, you will sell it in the end. Oak in particular has a fairly steady demand so I would be least open to low offers and most inclined to mill and store. Ash and macrocarpa are the ones I would look to move on sooner if possible as the demand is lower, so I would take sensible offers.

 

Just my view.

 

Alec

 

Alec

[tilleytrees]

In theory you will get more for it milled and seasoned than in the round.

 

In the long run, this is true, but unless you are milling to someone's cutting list, you are waiting for the right person to come along and buy from you, which then means they have to know you have timber for sale. This means time and effort, and money, on your part to advertise and handle customers. This is fine if you are happy to do so, but a pain if you aren't - at least you are going into it with your eyes open.

 

For the large oaks, I would track down your local timber framers and see if there is any interest. For the rest, I would plank it at 2" or 3". This will give the widest range of options. For anything over 2'6" I would seriously consider quartersawing to get more stable boards, although short, wide oak might be worth making slabs.

 

If you have the capability, converting it into an end product will make it more saleable as the buyer doesn't have to do anything then. This could be benches/tables from the durable timbers (oak, yew and robinia).

 

So long as you are realistic with your pricing, you will sell it in the end. Oak in particular has a fairly steady demand so I would be least open to low offers and most inclined to mill and store. Ash and macrocarpa are the ones I would look to move on sooner if possible as the demand is lower, so I would take sensible offers.

 

Just my view.

 

Alec

 

Alec

 

Thank you Alec

any idea on what price would be sensible

[muttley9050]

It's always worth more ti sell planked dried wood, but as Alec said people have to want the dimensions you have. You may have more luck on here selling in the round.

Oak when milled and seasoned you could ask £25-30 a cubic ft. Depending in quality. good yew maybe 35. Ash and the like I would accept anything over £15.

I could probably shift a fair bit if it for you in the round but when

Planked will be harder to sell. I'm definatelt interested in what I mentioned earlier, but would only take it in the round as I like to mill my own timber and take through to a final product for market. My bro in law lives near you and he may be interested in some. Id be interested in a trailer full when I visit him in november but only in the round(except for the robina which I may buy planked if dimension was right).

James

[muttley9050]

Before I started making more stuff myself, we used to sell a lot of timber to the local college. This might be worth investigating. But they only bought well seasoned timber. Bear in mind if you mill oak at 3" it may be 3-4 years before you could sell it.

[agg221]

I largely agree with James. Green ash/holm oak/macrocarpa - £15/cu.ft, seasoned £20/25/cu.ft. Green oak £20/cu.ft, seasoned £25-30/cu.ft. The above assumes everything to be of construction/joinery grade so you might get lucky and go a bit higher if there is anything exceptionally good for colour or grain (there are a few oak boards that Burrell and I milled which you can find on the pictures of people's milling thread that would be a bit higher, for example).

 

If your long oaks are large diameter, straight and free from significant knots then they would be useful for construction beams, so the price/cu.ft would be significantly higher than you might otherwise get.

 

One thing to note - commercial mills usually supply smaller thicknesses as it is quicker and easier to dry, and meets the general market. There is less demand for thicker material and it takes longer to dry (allow at least six months per inch of thickness) but this means that when someone is looking you are more likely to be able to meet a niche demand.

 

Alec

[farmerjohn]

In theory you will get more for it milled and seasoned than in the round.

 

In the long run, this is true, but unless you are milling to someone's cutting list, you are waiting for the right person to come along and buy from you, which then means they have to know you have timber for sale. This means time and effort, and money, on your part to advertise and handle customers. This is fine if you are happy to do so, but a pain if you aren't - at least you are going into it with your eyes open.

 

For the large oaks, I would track down your local timber framers and see if there is any interest. For the rest, I would plank it at 2" or 3". This will give the widest range of options. For anything over 2'6" I would seriously consider quartersawing to get more stable boards, although short, wide oak might be worth making slabs.

 

If you have the capability, converting it into an end product will make it more saleable as the buyer doesn't have to do anything then. This could be benches/tables from the durable timbers (oak, yew and robinia).

 

So long as you are realistic with your pricing, you will sell it in the end. Oak in particular has a fairly steady demand so I would be least open to low offers and most inclined to mill and store. Ash and macrocarpa are the ones I would look to move on sooner if possible as the demand is lower, so I would take sensible offers.

 

Just my view.

 

Alec

 

Alec

 

Hi Alec,

I have a few sticks of oak to be milled soon that are over 2'6", i was thinking of quarter sawing them, you mentioned cutting the oak into 2-3" sections i would be drying mine, using some for myself and possibly selling a small amount, is it assumed if someone wants 1" wide boards, once the 2" stuff is dried you then re-saw the 2" stock with a bandsaw? i am going to try and kiln mine eventually so would it be best to stick to 2-3" sections rather than 1" in the kiln as well to try and reduce the range of sizes.

 

One last general question about milling, any oak between 12" - 24", how would you cut it? just through and through or another method such as boxing out the heart?

 

regards, John

[muttley9050]

If you think you may have to resaw your oak it would be worth going a little thicker like 2 1/4 inch. If you mill at 2" by the the time its shrunk when drying your going to have less to play with. If it were me I would mill to the size I wanted initially. Of course allowing for a little(10%) shrinkage.

I've wasted a lot of time this week resawing beams. I would always mill small butts through and through. Any other configuration would leave too narrow boards.

James