Squaredy

59 minutes ago, MattyF said:

Is Atlantic cedar worth anything ?? I’ve heard folk raving on here about it but when I’ve tried to sell it or pass it in to a mill they have not been interested and told its vastly inferior to Lebanon cedar?

I would say difficult to distinguish the timber from C of L.  Both lovely timber though very knotty usually.

I agree with se7enthdevil's figure of about £30 per cubic foot.  However I would say that is a price for selecting a few boards and only for decent quality ones at that.  I would say that if the buyer is interested in the whole lot the price should come down quite a lot.  It is worth remembering that selling timber is a very time consuming business and to shift that lot to a variety of customers is likely to take months or years, hence it is only fair to drop the price accordingly.

Also I think everyone is assuming this is Cedar of Lebanon (or one of the other similar cedars like Atlantic Cedar).  If it is Western Red Cedar I would say the value is much lower.

I hope this helps.

9 minutes ago, woodwizzard said:

Agree, what he said ?

Ooooohhhh I am going to be really unhelpful and say not Yew, but I have no idea what.  Sapwood too wide for Yew and bark wrong.

In my experience a tree like that you can never tell until it is down how many stems it really is.  There will almost certainly be major bark inclusions and the like.  Difficult to value until it is down and in sections I would suggest.  I am sure there will be some good timber there, but maybe nothing as wide as one would hope.

Yes the bits above ground should last decades, depending on design.  Posts sunk in the ground will be rotten in 6 to 10 years.  Unless you can work out a clever way to protect them of course.  If you can bed them in large chippings (like railway ballast) and keep mud and sawdust away then they will not stay wet at ground level and may last better.  If they are embedded in concrete then at and just below ground level they will get wet and stay wet and therefore rot.

My little logging girls helped us out on our site today as we felled a large Spruce.  

3 minutes ago, Big J said:

If it makes you all feel any better, I cut a lot of western red cedar and here have been the major instances of it not being western red cedar. 

 

1) Had two loads of 'WRC' from Yorkshire. It was marked by the Commission as WRC but when it turned up in the yard, it was all western hemlock. 50 tonnes of the stuff.

 

2) A 200 tonne batch of 'WRC' from Argyll. First lot came into the yard and whilst some of it (about a quarter) was obviously Lawson's cypress, the rest looked almost like WRC but wasn't quite right. Checked with supplier and they weren't able to help. Had to drive 3 hours west to check the site and fairly quickly established that it was Japanese Red Cedar, which is actually superior. So, took the lot, lawsons included. Another instance of it being on the Commission map as WRC, felled as WRC, supplied as WRC and it not being WRC.

Wow that is a lot of error.  The Hemlock must have been gutting...

Maybe one day you will contract to buy a lorry load of Spruce, and when it turns up it is all Walnut....

37 minutes ago, devon TWiG said:

no apology required , I hope you do not think I am being pedantic, but if you are buying ,milling and selling timber then it would be in your own best interests to know what species you are dealing with ? 

Isn't it spooky, the original poster mistook a CRW for a WRC and then I mistook a WRC for a CRW.

15 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

Me too

31 minutes ago, devon TWiG said:

Pretty sure that is a WRC  !!!

Yeah I have zoomed in on the foliage on the original pic, and it really does look like WRC.  Well done for spotting my deliberate error......  

23 minutes ago, devon TWiG said:

Pretty sure that is a WRC  !!!

8 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

Me too

I do agree the foliage does look very WRC doesn't it!  Sorry if I have got that one wrong.  In which case that is a very nice Cedar.  Next time I am nearby I will go and check.

To bring this topic back on track I think Coastal Redwood is one of the best timbers as wide slabs.  Shame they so rarely come up.  It has the durability and stability of Giant Redwood, but is a stronger, altogether superior timber.  It is a shame that so little of it is grown as forest trees in the UK, and the stands of it that I know of have not been managed properly so when milled they will have large dead knots all the way up.

1 hour ago, Squaredy said:

Myself and the Mrs in front of a pretty big Coastal Redwood in West Wales.  They don't get such massive girth as Giant Redwood, but still very impressive, even babies like this one. 

 

Before we cut all the tall ones down they were the world's tallest tree...

Please specify whether it is the tree or my lovely Wife you are reacting to.....  PS: she doesn't smile like this all the time.

Actually just reading up on the tinternet it seems Coastal Redwood are still the world's tallest tree.

Myself and the Mrs in front of a pretty big Coastal Redwood in West Wales.  They don't get such massive girth as Giant Redwood, but still very impressive, even babies like this one. 

Before we cut all the tall ones down they were the world's tallest tree...

8 minutes ago, Leanne said:

I found a few for size 6, which even though too big are a class 2 and cheaper than the size 5.  I'm thinking very fluffy socks.

 

Thank you everyone for the links

I am not sure that fluffy socks really give Class 1 protection, I think you will have to get some chainsaw boots.  Correct me if I am wrong of course.  

19 minutes ago, devon TWiG said:

Could you post some pics of the foliage , because I find it hard to believe that is WRC  looks like Sequoia to me !!   happy to be wrong !!

I think you and Big J are right.  Coastal Redwood though not Sequoia.

1 hour ago, spudulike said:

It is pretty simple, if you fit a reasonable stove and pay for commercially dried and split wood, you are unlikely to save money.

I have to agree with this.  I save money because I don't work out the value of the firewood I burn which is all sawmill "waste".  

I enjoy my woodburner partly because I love a real fire but also because we use it as much as we like without worrying about wood consumption, whereas if we put gas central heating on we would probably only let it come on for a couple of hours each evening.  And my house gets really cold in winter so it would be miserable.

As a small scale firewood seller I would say the majority of my customers just love their woodburners - very few of them are expecting it to save them money.  It is a luxury item like their fancy car.

2 hours ago, Ty Korrigan said:

My new Garmin GPS has opened up enormous possibilities for cycling routes there being no paper maps available.

Sounds awesome.  I just hope your Garmin GPS is more reliable than my Garmin satnav.....!

13 hours ago, neiln said:

I do personally think biomass from local source is good, biomass from distance is not.

Just to throw another fly into the ointment of Drax burning woodchip sourced from the USA, there is evidence that some of the woodchip is being sourced from clearfelling virgin forest.  It is meant to come from low grade material that is produced as a by-product of the huge logging industry in the USA but satellite imagery has given very strong evidence that some of it is actually causing de-forestation.  

This is a problem that the USA will have to fix of course, and our government won't care - the stats will still show an improvement in the carbon footprint of Drax.

5 minutes ago, daltontrees said:

Impossible to tell from that picture. Not even definitely a conifer.

Yea close-up piccies would help.  Anyone who said Larch however must have been looking at the pic on a very small screen....a phone perhaps.  I have zoomed in on a decent size screen and I am way out of my depth.  Certainly not a common native tree.

I agree with what Big J says, but would also add that a lot depends on the log and how it is cut so to an extent if a board wants to twist or warp it will.  To avoid movement you need to quarter-saw logs, or at the very least saw into narrower boards.  Also straps don't really help as they will loosen as the timber dries and shrinks.  I guess they may help if you keep tightening them.

Also think about where you are storing the boards - out of sun and rain, but with good airflow.

But to a large extent a good straight grained log without knots will stay much straighter than a knarly old knotty bendy log when milled.

57 minutes ago, neilb said:

In future I will always drive to inspect and collect with cash.

That is always the best way.  But paying by PayPal does give some protection.  It won't give protection against an item not quite being as it should or as you hope, but it will give protection against scams or indeed disorganised sellers who mess you around and fail to send your goods.

It is always good to be aware also whether you are dealing with a business or an individual.  The law gives quite a lot of protection when buying from a business including the right to return an item for a refund for any reason at all within 14 days (except for a few items like specially made or adapted items).  From an individual however there is very little protection.

On a PC it is easy to see if a seller is a business - on the right of the listing page just under the "contact the seller" link it will state "Registered as a business seller" if it is a business.  On a phone I have no idea how you tell.

I hope you have not been scammed. 

I would recommend always being suspicious when buying something unseen and paying in advance.  I would be even more suspicious when the seller asks for payment by bank transfer.

I would suggest requesting contact details from ebay (this is a standard right you have) and this may give you an address and further phone numbers.  Or if the item has been listed by a hacked account it will bring this to light if you try to contact the real account holder.  Also it may prompt them (if genuine) to reply to you and re-arrange delivery.

Don't forget you can open a case with ebay, even though you didn't pay by paypal; though sadly I don't think ebay will refund your money.

7 hours ago, woody paul said:

If you have that much timber over size for your processor's up grade 1 of them .

 

Or if you get lots of good size logs maybe sell them on for milling.  I would offer but I am too far away from you.  Or maybe they are not logs worth milling?

I guess all this talk of large logs being ringed up for firewood makes me wince!

On 06/06/2018 at 12:11, Squaredy said:

And even better is the odd picture I get sent of an overgrown Leylandii or similar in someone's garden asking if I will cut the tree down and pay them. 

Here is a nice picture I was sent a few days ago, offering me these top quality specimens.  I am not buying softwood logs just now, so if anyone is interested I will pass the contact details on.  I am not totally convinced they are fully mature and ready for felling though.  Maybe the owner should give them a few more weeks?

I can only say what I am currently paying.  Small diameter Ash nice and clean and straight with not too many end splits I would value at £2.50 per hoppus foot roadside.  Larch about the same size if it is nice and clean, maybe £70 or £75 per ton (which I would estimate to be around £2.50 per hoppus foot also).  Larch has gone up a lot in the last year or so.