Is this worth looking in to selling? It's 8.5' long, 20" diameter. It was dead standing not sure how long it's been dead
It depends on what you do with it, as just a log? Not much but you might be able to find a buyer for it if you drag it out of the woods and have it ready to go, if it's going to sit a while, put wax on the ends to keep from drying and cracking. Slabbed up dried and finished with legs, this table brought about 5 grand. I welded legs for it.
See if there's a custom furniture shop around you, that's your best bet to get any cash out of it. If you got$300 for it your doing pretty good.
If you have it ready to go on a trailer and have a customer there, start at 350 see where they go and go from there, it looks pretty solid, if they only want to give you$50 I'd start the saw and cut into it and watch them cringe and match your price!!!
That's worth something to the right person. I'm usually very picky about saw logs and walnut is notorious for all sorts of defect. As mentioned above, the limb in the middle decreases the value, but it doesn't necessarily condemn it to firewood. Also, there is a dark stain on the butt of the log that gives me some pause. I can't tell from the picture if its rot, ingrown bark or stain from embedded metal or something else. If it were me, I'd hire a local bandsaw miller or small mill and saw it into lumber, then stack and sticker it to air dry. Air-dried will command a much higher price than in log form, but will take some patience, like 1-2 years. You could try 4/4 for general furniture lumber, 8/4 flitch sawn (live edge) for table tops or 10/4 for gunstock blanks, the latter two commanding higher prices. If you just want to get rid of it as quickly as possible, put it up on Craigslist or better yet contact local small mills. You will get a lot more interest and money for the log if you can transport it to a small mill, rather than having them arrange to pick it up. The way to measure would be the diameter of the dark heartwood (not the white sapwood or bark) at the small end. If I guesstimate that at 16", then you are looking at total board-foot of the log at about 77 Doyle, 88 Scibner or 96 International scale.
I definitely wouldn't cut it up for firewood. @ the least you could seek out a local member that may have an Alaskan mill.
No moron feelings here at all. I would look in your craigslist for sawmill for hire and sometimes they come to your site. The charge would be a bit higher than if you brought the log to them but to just cut up one 8' log shouldn't take long at all. My sons GF had a band sawmill come to there place and slice up some hickory. Very satisfied with the results. Hope that the tree isn't along a property line as then it would run the risk of having some "stuff" nailed into it. Please post results after its milled!!!
Your not a moron, I Mill small stuff let it dry and turn it into cutting boards coat racks or sell the smaller stuff to my uncle for jewelry boxes.
I'd chuckle and let you buck it up. It's nothing but a log on the ground until it's picked up transported milled stickered and stored for a year+. All the labor knowledge equipment and skill is what adds exponential value to lumber. As an amateur sawer I would offer 50. I wouldn't even waste time looking at it for more than 100. But I would try and get what I could out of it if it were me.
It's worth whatever someone will pay for it, that's the bottom line I suppose, but it's mostly dependant on where your at and if there's anyone around with that knowledge. I help my buddy here and there with everything he does, he's picking up a bunch of logs in Minnesota as I type this, but if someone came out to look at it with a price of$350 obo, they're probably willing to give at least 175. Biggest thing is, as my buddy tells the people that he pays for wood, he buys logs, not trees, a lot of the wood he gets comes from the city and home owners pay upwards of $3000 to have a tree removed.
Not really an expert. However, I have had lots of trees sawn into lumber over the year and I've made a lot of mistakes, so I'm building up my bank of "experience." I definitely agree with The Wood Wolverine Absolutely more value in lumber than firewood, even though that log is less than "perfect." BTW, the good news is that walnut lumber is very "forgiving" to dry, so it's a great place to start to learn to dry wood. TRUTH!
True, local markets vary wildly as well. I was going to get into local published sawmill prices, but there is also a" Craigslist price" that if given the time could pay more. Some people pay more for straight logs some like more character or flaws. I know several species, there is no price it's all in the character of the lumber. I'd also rather buy a feild tree (regardless if near a fence line)than any yard tree.
This is probably the best option. Depending how much you get from it and local markets, you could have several hundred dollars worth of lumber.
