Old walnut tree

[DaveB]

In my yard I have a 100+ year old 60+ foot walnut tree that is the last remaining walnut tree from my great grandfathers farm. The farm used to have lots of them but the rest are all gone. For the last two years I have been having limbs die off after the huge wind event we had. I have been trimming the dead stuff out but finally asked an arborist to come take a look. He told me that the limb die off wasn't a wind problem but a fungal disease called thousand cankers disease and the tree won't survive. The disease is brought in by walnut twig borers and used to only hit black walnut trees but now is showing up in english walnuts. The arborist was lusting after the wood in the tree as it has a 3 foot diameter trunk that is strait for about 10 feet. He says I should be able to sell the wood for around $6K (30K if it was a black walnut). I have had several bids to trim up the tree to get rid of the dead branches I can't easily reach but the bids are about $1300. I don't want to spend that much if the tree is going to die anyway. To remove the tree they want $2500-3000. I can cut it down but would need to rent a cherry picker. I could drop it in one cut but my neighbors don't want me to hurt any of their landscaping. I would love to cut the trunk into a slab table but i would need a mill.
Do any of you know of a place that could mill a trunk of this size ? or who has good rates for cherry pickers ?

 

[nnnnnate]

I have a friend with an Alaskan mill. Basically a chainsaw mounts to a sled that sets the width of cut. He slabs a fair amount of wood and knows what he's doing.

I'd be happy to come lend a hand in return for some pieces I could turn.

I'm not personally a slab guy so I don't know what those go for but the value comes down the road after the wood has dried and is then usable. To air dry it takes about a year per inch of thickness. For a table I'd assume you would want at least two inches, but probably closer to three to have enough meat to mill it to final thickness after it's dried and twisted or warped a little.

 

[nnnnnate]

Also, I've been watching a lot of aborist videos lately on YouTube so I'm basically an expert at doing this kind of stuff. 😎

 

[Shawn]

Wow, we have two of the same trees and one is going though what you have described.
Sad

 

[DaveB]

I have a friend with an Alaskan mill. Basically a chainsaw mounts to a sled that sets the width of cut. He slabs a fair amount of wood and knows what he's doing.

I'd be happy to come lend a hand in return for some pieces I could turn.

I'm not personally a slab guy so I don't know what those go for but the value comes down the road after the wood has dried and is then usable. To air dry it takes about a year per inch of thickness. For a table I'd assume you would want at least two inches, but probably closer to three to have enough meat to mill it to final thickness after it's dried and twisted or warped a little.

I have some black walnut pieces that are great for turning. Some guy was advertising free black walnut so I ran down ASAP however when I got there he had cut it all up into firewood length. I still grabbed some of the big pieces for turning.

 

[Tebbsjeep]

Where would one advertise to sell a large silver maple trunk?

 

[Tonkaman]

For the lift, give Western States Equipment a call. They are fairly cheap and will deliver to you.

 

[frieed]

Walnut headboard I made 35 yrs ago from a wind downed tree from my sisters property in Virginia.

 

[nnnnnate]

So I talked to my buddy about this a little more and he says the fact its got disease leaves a big question mark. There could be a fair amount of rot throughout the whole tree. I think its typical to have a someone slab a tree two ways. Either you make a deal by trading labor for some slabs or you just pay for the time to get it done. With the question of whether the trunk is sound he says he would not be willing to trade the labor for slabs but could be paid for the time. He's got things all calculated out for material and time and without laying out every line item it ends up being about $100 or $110 an hour and he says he thinks it would take about 5-ish hours based on your original description.

Because its a residential tree there is also going to be metal in it. Could be a nail(s), bullets, or about a million other things but some people would see that as being a bonus. Bullets are soft so its probably not going to be a big deal for the saw but if its harder metal that could mess up the chain and would add time due to needing to sharpen it. The metal will also cause staining in the wood as the minerals leach around it. Again, some people like that but your more traditional builders would see that as a negative.

As far as what the arborist says it might be worth. Again, this is down the road a couple years when the wood is dried. At 36" wide and 10' long he thinks they could be sold for maybe $600-700 a slab. He'd suggest cutting it to 3 or 3.25 inches thick. Remember that the first and last slabs are going to be narrower and worth less.

My buddy does this as a hobby. He has a bunch of slabs in his backyard and is a big bowl turner, I think he said hes got around 300 bowls at varying stages of dry stashed around his house. More wood outside in plastic or in bins waiting to be turned. Generally he finishes bowls and sells them in December to friends and neighbors and uses a lot of that money for Christmas (or on the furnace that went out last year.)

 

[nnnnnate]

Where would one advertise to sell a large silver maple trunk?

You could try KSL or if you search "lumber" there you can find people selling slabs. You could ask them if they buy trunks. From memory there people up in Hooper, Nephi, and I've been seeing slabs advertised out of Kearns lately too. I'm sure there are more but thats just off memory. A badsaw mill will be faster and have less waste (thinner blade over a chainsaw) but they take a lot more work to either get the whole trunk to the saw or to get the saw to the trunk. There are certainly trade offs on both sides.

I think most of the people you see around here with a bandsaw mill or chainsaw mill are doing this as a hobby, like my friend. With us not having the hardwood forest that is prevalent back east or up around Minnesota there aren't really lumber yards set up or willing to buy single trees. There are enough people getting rid of urban trees that I think a lot of these guys are getting wood for free so they also aren't willing to buy them unless its something super special. Most of them have arborist connections (again, like my buddy) so when something interesting comes up they can get the word and kind of pick and choose. Again though, the payoff is down the road when the wood is dry.

You can put the slabs in a kiln to speed up the drying but that is a process as well. If its not done right the boards build up a ton of tension and warp like crazy. This also adds an additional cost to pay for kiln time but you get the return sooner because the wood could be done in a matter of months rather than years.

 

[nnnnnate]

I'm sure there are a bunch of you interested by now about slabbing trees. THE guy for these videos, at least as far as I'm concerned is Matt Cremona who lives in Minnesota. He primarily cuts urban lumber and built his own bandsaw mill after pricing out off the shelf options because they didn't have the capacity that he wanted for the monster trees available by him. His saw can handle a trunk 76" in diameter, he's built a mess of other things to be able to load those trunks onto a trailer and to be able to get them on the mill. Its a rabbit hole for sure.

Here is a taste from a couple days ago.

 

[Greg]

The arborist was lusting after the wood in the tree as it has a 3 foot diameter trunk that is strait for about 10 feet. He says I should be able to sell the wood for around $6K (30K if it was a black walnut).

Wonder what our black walnut tree is worth! It's only 2+ feet around at the trunk... I don't care for it because it's messy when the walnuts drop... but it is a beautiful tree.

 

[DaveB]

A few years back I talked to a mill guy but when he heard the tree I had was urban he wasn't interested. His was a big saw blade type.

 

[nnnnnate]

Yeah the "real" sawmills won't touch urban lumber because they don't want to have to replace their blades when they hit metal. I think hobbyists are much more willing to deal with metal but its still a hassle. My friend uses a metal detector to try and find it then when he does he'll try and pry it out. Its not a 100% solution but certainly helps.

 

[Jeepj667]

A little off topic but they are cutting down 30+ trees from Copperton Park. I don't know what all different kinds there are but I have a contact for the company if anyone wants some.

 

[nnnnnate]

Yes please. Do you know when the trees are coming down? You can message me the details if you want.

 

[Jeepj667]

They started yesterday.

 

[Jeepj667]

My wife called and asked for some rounds for end tables. He was cool, said we could have whatever we wanted just go ask the guys.

 

[Coco]

I am late to this, and unfortunately not much help in the cherry picker dept, but I would buy a smaller slab off you if you decide to sell it? I am happy to come help with labor as well. I have been wanting to build a table pretty bad.

Wish I would have kept a piece from our monster cottonwood, but really the wood wasn't nice for a table in my opinion.

 

[frieed]

Talk about wrong wood for furniture, I made an entire set of kitchen cabinets with poplar face frames... D'Oh