WADKIN

I buy quite a bit of walnut and £30 is really top dollar in the round for very good butts and very few logs are even worth the effort of planking. Something like this I would offer around £200 on.

I for one given the access is a pig, just cut of the burrs taking part of the stem with them. Easy stuff to sell if they are large enough. Little bits and pieces are a waste of time, try and make them as large as possible whilst remembering you need to handball them out.

A bit of a long shot i know, but i thought it worth asking. Does anyone have any sizable mulberry. i have a new potential client who is after some butts, so with some contacts failing to unearth anything i thought it was worth posting a thread, just in case. If you think you have something which may be of interest to us. Please just drop me some mail or give me a call on 07973846364 Cheers Andy

Hello Yes i have sent you a pm, if you let me know what there is there that would help.

Rob kindly phoned me to tell me about this today. If you are interested in selling in the round then just give me a call and i will come over and have a look. If you want to sell planked then as suggested you need to preserve as much width as possible. Thanks for the tip Rob

I would agree with Rob, 2" in the main, with a bit of 3" for leg stock of of the rift boards either side of the heart when through and through, that way it shows straight grain on the four faces. As it is walnut it can always be resawn for stile/rails, panels by the maker, without too many problems. Sometimes i would cut a bit 1.25" but 2" is popular with most. Of course you could always just flog me the stem and i will make all decisions and dilemma's go away.

It could be a wise investment for someone who plans on going into drying in a slightly bigger way, and can get his head round it. It really is a science in itself and different timbers need different handling and schedules, I pay Wests in sussex to dry anything i need done, which in truth is not a lot because of who i sell to now. It also means that as they have different kiln options open to people, so that things such as sycamore can be done in one of their vacuum kilns, with excellent results when dealt with quickly enough. Just a case of finding someone who offers the service close enough to your location to save transporting too far.

A slight tangent to the question really. But having seen a few guys attempt to run small kilns over the years most have dropped the idea following problems or just not being bothered with it all after the initial tempting idea of getting money in sooner than air drying. For myself i never really had the luxury of room and when ever i need things drying i just pay to have a commercial kiln to dry it, there need not be a huge volume, i have had as little as 50 cube done in this way in the past. they are experts at it and dependant on the timber and volume being dried i have also found that the extra few pounds on a cube well spent, and it is something which i pass on to the buyer in the long run. Something which is badly kilned is pretty much worthless or at the very least will mean that the buyer faced with timber pinching bowing and cupping and all the other resulting issues that come with poorly dried timber will not be coming back so all the work in building the client base is lost. Just my thoughts on it. And having said it i am sure there are people out there here include who do a good job of it, but there are also a whole lot who really bugger up a lot of wood.

Certainly the best way forward for cutting. It will be interesting to see some images as you say it is very hard and difficult to cut. South American mahogany is fairly easy to work with most means and is one of the reasons it was so popular a few years ago for all manner of uses. It cuts and machines cleanly and was at one time used for everything from aluminum doubled glazed hardwood sub frames,to ships planking, masts, propellers, a huge list of other end uses besides. Over the years there has been huge amounts of different timbers coming out of south American, a some of which can be confused with mahogany. Anyway what matters is that you are pleased with it that aside. Hope it all goes well i look forward to the pictures. Just bear in mind that if it is in good nick inside and Brazilian/Honduras mahogany you could afford to pay someone to do the work and have a choice of materials with change.

As pointed out if it is a true mahogany then you could flog it to someone for a nice little earner and go and buy something more fitting. If you are not too far away from me i would happily run some through for you, and do a deal on some as payment, if it is in fact mahogany, and not just another red timber that everyone calls mahogany.

Never even crossed my mind chainsaw carving. Great suggestion and nice and easy to deal with.

Really depends on what it is, if it is Cedar of Lebanon, then given its limited end uses, being so soft, i would go for breaking into large cants for processing at a mill into stuff for makers. Its main uses being backs & bottoms, or sometimes paneling. So for paneling you want nice clean stuff, planked around 15mm, and for framing/rails/stiles, a mix of 2" and 1". I cannot say i have ever sold any to carvers, and i am not sure it is something they would use, if they did then you are never going to find enough of them to sell to. Mind having looked at the posts, Rob may be the one to answer the question as it may be useful for outside pieces given it lasts for ever, it used to be used for fence posts at one time. I never favored any of these applications as it is too soft for most things. But then if people want to have something in garden that will last and are not worried about the dings etc, then it is a good use for it. Really need to know what type of cedar it is. Hope that helps i am sure others will follow on to give their thoughts.

They are some big old lumps, wouldn't have minded seeing some turner spin one of them up. There was a lot of effort put into obtaining them i see, great to see a worthwhile project at the end of it.

Hi Regards running elm down south, whilst there is not huge amounts about. There are large commercial suppliers/sources such as Wests in Sussex and others, who seem to maintain a steady supply, most of which all comes north of the border, they endeavor to keep stuff in widths big enough for 1 piece bottoms on Windsor type chairs. So i would say unless it is something special, such as the burr above, then after factoring in your costs, i do not think you would get any better return back then selling locally, or to make it worth all the effort. Unless the price is at a point which offers sellers such as myself a good margin. and gets you a quicker return the selling 1 or 2 boards every few weeks. In which case 70 cube is a nice sized parcel for smaller sellers such as myself where if the log in keep in order and of good grade, it then appeals to makers. Good burr is a different kettle of fish. And to get the best return i would always advise to keep a natural edge all round, where ever possible. i have not had anything decent for god knows how long. Yes i do get to see some nice pieces, i have a shipment of Australian Fiddlebacked blackwood, amongest other things, due to get into port in the next ten days. It will be cut for the instrument trade in the main, the offcuts go to turners and various hobby buyers. When it gets in i will post some images of some when it is cut.

Nice elm Out of interest how do you approach the log, do you take off a good slab for turners, for natural edge work, then then take 2" for slab tops? And have you consider sound pieces for veneer cutting? Down here in the south there is almost bugger all elm about.

I supply specialist timbers or source for others. I import some, such as figured maple from the states for guitar builders. Here in the uk I buy walnut and other figured timbers, burrs etc. People either purchase directly or i charge a sourcing fee for finding what they are after. So it always pays to know what is around, and who will pay the best money for what purpose, which discounts most wood turners, nothing against them, just that it is a very wasteful process and they struggle to get any money for the end product. Walnut with a large percentage of sap in and little colour, can find a home with them however, no makers want it, cut to give a good mix of sap and heart, goes down quite well, as it makes a nice contrast. In the case of walnut, i buy good material when it comes up, as i always have a number of buyers wanting the stuff, and who will pay top money for the best material. Because of the market i sell into, i can afford to pay way over anything a log buyer will for the right stuff. Finding the right material of course, is not that easy. I agree on the Wadkin comment, the workshops are kitted out with a few old lumps of iron which came from them, many moons ago and they are still earning their keep.

Only to glad to share the information on the subject. I am always looking to buy good specimens or point people in the direction of potential markets.

Glad you managed to get to the end, without nodding off.

The root ball is indeed used for stocks and veneers. However if you speak with any gunhouse here in the uk you will get the same reply, we do not buy english as it is not dense enough. In the main it all comes in from Turkey these days. The cutting is very specialist to make sure the grain flows through the wrist etc, a stocker once told be the flare of the stem and root plate were also very important as during its growth it sheds water better and of course it flows through the shape itself. There is a big difference between a pretty piece of walnut and a functioning pretty piece which will stand the recoil of a working gun. The big prices you see advertised on sites such as steve skidis, are for very rich bankers to choose a bit from. In truth buying in volume in mixed lots the prices are not as much as people think. I recently had some dropped of to me to sell for a mate, he picked them up from a top london gunmakers for £20 a piece as they were not up to grade. Not to say that is not what they are worth and pay normally, but they do not pay hundreds of pounds as some may think, that is just for a very small retail market. It that said if the site allows and the root ball is better taken out with the stem, or left behind and cut as low as is possiable, 2 reasons, the first length is never that great and in order to be of use to someone wanting a few stocks, they are going to need 2 foot or so of the stem for the flare. So it reduces the length of the saleable stem. The other thing being most buyers will not buy walnut with the root on as they cannot see what they are buying. If you are going to take it out with the root the tap root has to cut as if ruptured by pulling it will ruin a lot of the timber. Regards veneer, the root ball can be rotary peeled and the americans refer to it as swirl veneer. Hope that answers some questions.

If you are interested in selling all of this all or part of. i would happily pay you a good rate. I will send you a PM with my detials if you are interested in parting with it. Andy

Sure is, here is a couple of extra shots of a billet and what becomes of it. [/img] [/img]

Hi Rob I am over towards the meon valley. I don't cut the timber myself only buy it, and import a small amount for instrument makers. It can be anything from walnut to quilted maple, Ziricote. I buy walnut in the round or planked for turning into accoustic back and side sets. Below gives you a idea. [/img] This material below goes for the same with a small percentage for facings on electrics. [/img] I sell a small amount to makers and turners, the turners mostly take all the odds and sods no one else wants. And it shifts all my offcuts. When selling in plank, the walnut can range from £60 to £150 a cube. Dependant on how good it is. When you can get hold of really good pieces like the previous slab, then you can charge for it on a individual basis to the right buyer. I have sold slabs like this for up to £600 a piece but some of it is almost 4 foot wide. In the main however it gets cut into want ever gives me the best return. I do get offered allsorts of material from time to time which is not suitable for what i do, so if anything comes up i will let you know. If you get any good walnut in then i am always looking myself.

Fair play to you if you can get the £1000 as a rustic table. It would not realise anything like that for turners. A few hundred at best sold cut for big bowls cut through on the pith. It is quick and easy to do without running it through a mill however, and if you have been paid to take it away anyway, it has to be a bonus with a quick return. I just prefer to get some money in a bit quicker that having it laid around to have all that sap eaten away. With the shake and all the other defects likely to be a issue in the small amount of colour there is, i just could not be that arsed with it really. People get a bit hung up on walnut and it is the very odd log that it is worth getting excited over. Attached is a couple of images of a log that was worth cutting. It was almost 6 foot across on the crotch. Sadly,windblown with huge amounts of rot in the butt. It was worth the time to transport and cut however as the colour and lining was pretty much as good as you get, and the limbs all produced good timber, producing widths of over 30". However this is not to say big is always good, i have had them in the past to the same sort of size with 9"+ of sap on. And small butts with a 1" sap ring, its all down to the ground it stands on really. The better the drainage, the better the colour i find. Its a shame it is so hard to find good butts. I can sell them every day of the week without trying that hard.

Somehoow i missed of the other image here it is http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh283/Wadkin1/w175.jpg