WADKIN

Some of the nicest I’ve had

Jake and Marcus from J&M designs, good customers of the legend, rod d, did the business with a few burr elm lumps for me recently, the biggest goes to around 78” wide, great lads with all the toys and skills

Yes it is sycamore, it had been down for a while so sadly some stain, like everything it’s worth is in what someone is willing to pay. Veneer logs in Europe can sell for big money but just the occasional butt here isn’t going to attract the same money

It’s just beech with colour, no spalt and worth pennies to be honest when you factor in the shifting

Also compression figure and hillside/slope stuff/reaction wood will often show it but proper figure is genetic and from the day it starts of as a sapling to the end of its life, someone once said to me it’s like us, some have straight hair some curly, the Germans have been experimenting with cloning for veneer production for years as they also do for masur/curly birch in Finland etc.

Long time since posted here then came across this topic

I’d be interested in them when you have them down, if you plan on selling to steve you will be fine but if you want him to saw I’ve had stuff there well over a year still waiting, he is extremely busy with all his regular big clients, Vasterns, Sutton Tyler’s to name a few and trying to get anything cut almost impossible

As Big J suggests, heartwood colour, sap all play a major role in value. There are not many logs around this size and the ones we sometimes see this old are to some extent rotten but that is not always a right of. A lot of large stuff in the top can be used so it always pays to ask before getting too carried away with the saw. We recently acquired a very large butt with a 47"qg at the smallest point. Sadly the farmer ringed up all everything barring the butt which would have gone the same way but he didn't have a large enough saw to fell it thankfully. If you want to ask any questions just give me call Andy prime timber 07711 278745

If it's solid and of good colour could well be if it's not been cut too low. Just send me a message with details if you want to move it on. Or if you just want to know if it's worth cutting yourself a picture of a fresh cut end will help, most of them are a waste of time and it can be a ball ache cutting.

Cheers, they will all go for guitar tops in a few years time, it was a windblown log so not too bad I wouldn't have fancied digging it.

Sorry i couldn't help the title. It was with tongue in cheek. Still as a lot of guys are here on account of their passion for timber i thought i would share what i had spent the day doing, most of which was getting wet from the jet washer. I do realise that the finish is awful but believe me when i say that after you have tried opening up a 4ft wide root the saw is lucky to cut at all. Now all i need to do is think of those tens of thousands i will get for it.:001_rolleyes:

I have a bit of elm which is either 5" or 6" x 12", been in stick for maybe 3 to 4 years so not 100percent dry, but if you dont have any luck let me know

To extract the roots, we first bore down through one of the buttress flares at an angle to look at the colour and extent of it, unless it is good the root stays put. If it looks promising we dig with a small machine around the butt, cut through the buttress flares, undermine the butt in the direction of the fall. Cut through the tap root then all being well a bit of a push and it goes over revealing a nice stash of lovely snakewood logs

Hi all. Its worth what ever someone is willing to pay really. And yes Jonathan in 2 years time should getting a couple of coins for it. I do not have a rate as such for pieces of burr walnut, although that is not to say you cannot buy it in this manner, a couple of years ago i was trying to put together a deal with a dealer in europe buying container loads of prime planked walnut, not the steamed rubbish you see in the commerical market. He also supplied the veneer trade with whole root burls/ not just a root, these were root burls, tight eyes good even covering, at that time he was getting around $8 a kilo but is was a couple of years ago. But he told me the price and demand was dropping of a bit as nowadays buyers have so much choice, vavonna, kareilian birch burl, thuya, etc etc, years ago it was quite something to have burr walnut adorning your bentley and jet, these days everyone wants something others don't have. Almost all the best stock i saw these days goes to instrument makers and high end cabinet makers, just recently we supplied Warner Brothers half a log of prime english walnut for a forthcoming blockbuster, all so they could have a feature table in a short scene. Fore lovers of wood another couple of images attached inculding a visit today to veiw a 250year old sound walnut, as big as i have seen myself still intact, quite a trek it took me 5hours to get there, the snow didnt help either.

Yes it was a pleasure to see comedy the saw, I have a number of stumps/roots with similar burrs on and if they are half as good I will be a happy man

I had a few stumps back from the mill this week so had a bit of a play with one of them today, I never get fed up milling walnut, well the right bits of course.

Saves a few quid on the transport costs then.

Hi Jonathan Its good to see, they get through logs at a rate of knots with steve sitting there flicking away at a couple of joysticks. The orchard was a bit dissapointing really, only had 4 sticks in the end, the rest too sappy, still got to get them over as the ground is too wet for uplifting. Still managed to get through just under 700hopus on friday of the stuff so no great rush. Steve told me you had some elm there, not enough up you way then, lol

Hi Really no clue how to do this but tried, properly failed. A few of our recent logs going through. http://youtu.be/ge6wWzntTtU' alt='ge6wWzntTtU'>

I had to add a bit in here as I buy and remove a lot of walnut during the course of a year. Firstly worth, a lot of what I get is free, or at least if it is suitable quality and covers the cost of removal or felling, so whilst I might not pay the owner when still standing they have it removed for free or at a lower cost, so free is not the right word really. I have also paid £20 on measure for the right butt. What is the right butt? no need to do that one really as everyone knows about sap rings, shake, colour etc. Is it worth sending in a artic load to a mill? Only if the quality is good, you can't base this on the number of logs. I have just finished selectively extracting 7butts from almost 80 in a old walnut grove of around 90years of age which is not that old really. The rest are worth more as firewood than timber, large sap rings, poor form etc. Gambling on standing walnut, the only gamble is on shake really, that can be accessed from experience of the site and the exposure, the ground it stands on etc, the colour, sap ring etc is always inspected first so I know what I am getting, some varieties make for good timber some don't, but by inspecting each log it will always tell it's own story. Lastly root balls? One day the myth of making thousands selling stocks will end hopefully, but then again I have numerous logs with rootballs on, one large log even has some nice burrs attached all over it, will I cut it for stocks? no, complete waste of time, the market is flooded by east europeans supplying this very small limited market for high end stocks which are produced alongside the very average ones sold to large gun houses producing thousands of stocks each year. We take the root balls only on very promising butt's with good stripe, only because it can produce stunning timber which is a lot easier to sell than some piece of sappy grey washed out stock. That's my take on it and I deal with inspecting walnut almost on a weekly basis. You can see a few bits and bobs of these on our website primetimber in the news section

Hi Ian I have just sent you a message regards this.

[url=http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/390923113543

Hi hope its ok to put this here. Some time since i have been on here but thought i would give any potential new millers the heads up on the fact i have listed my 090 and mill set up on ebay which was Rob Ds old set up before he got fed up with me calling and asking him to mill stuff for me, i think he parted with it to stop the calls. I dont need it any more so needs a new owner.If of any intrest to anyone just pm me.

Hope its ok to list this here, not been on for a while. Just a heads up to say that i no longer require the above which i got of of Rob last year, it was his own set up but giving its size and the fact rob had another big saw he let me have this one instead of me keep calling him to come and cut something for me. I am sticking it up on ebay but if anyone here wants it just pm me. Rob tells me it had a gen new pot etc when he got it and apart from the lock on trigger everything works fine. Rob knows more than me and i am afraid i cannot tell you what sproket etc is on there. Any questions just ask and i will try my best to answer.