Yesterday, I helped out an old fella down the street and cleared out a big cherry tree that had fallen in of his pastures. The tree was approx. 30" at the base and as straight and tall as a cherry as I've ever seen. He had tried last summer to have someone take it for lumber but they never showed - go figure. As I was clearing it, we were both commenting on how nice it was and that it should really be lumber and not firewood. Unfortunately, I had to saw the 2 largest sections into 7' lengths so my Kubota L3901 could pick them up with the forks. This is probably a big downer for the sawmill as I assume they want a bit over 8-ft at minimum. Either way I still have 3 more sections that are over 10-ft and 14-18" in diameter. Most likely NOT veneer quality but still straight cherry none the less. Should I consider loading these up and hauling to a sawmill to sell or just split and burn? Neighbor said if I wanted I could sell them - no hard feelings - just wanted the tree out of the way! Heck, he even offered to buy me a case of beer for helping him out (I declined). I'm not sure if it's worth the hassle..... I certainly don't need any sawn lumber at this point, but if were talking anything over $250 in my pocket I believe it would be worth my time (and loss of potential split wood) to haul to the sawmill. Any thoughts? How do you decide if you should burn or save for lumber? Pictures to follow (forgot to grab them yesterday).
Tough call. If you need fast drying firewood do that. If you’re far enough ahead and would rather a couple hundred bucks instead then make lumber. I think a good compromise is to do both. “Cherry pick” a couple logs for sawmill fodder then CSS the rest. Straight grained cherry is definitely not easy to come by.
Finding a buyer for sawlogs isn't always easy nor all that profitable. I've cut up some beautiful oak that would have made floor boards or even cabinet grade boards but to do that around here pretty much menas owning your own sawmill. There's a sawmill down the street but he wants $$ per board foot and a hefty deposit for carbide blade teeth. He won't buy logs unless you are a broker he can trust. He just doesn't have time for it. I've asked. Probably easier to sell sawlogs around here if there were more (portable) sawmills, there just aren't. Make some calls.
Might try and find either a portable band miller close to you or someone with a chainsaw mill. They may give you something for them. I’d hate to see nice straight cherry just bucked up and burnt.
I mean if you're gonna haul them out anyway just to burn then why not at least haul them out and see what the mill would offer? If it's not worth it, then bring them home and resume cutting into firewood.
Thanks for the replies. All very wise as usual! I measured last night (forgot to take pictures...... again) and according to a helpful table I found online, it appears that I have about 330 bd. ft. of lumber sitting there. I've heard of guys locally selling rough sawn boards for something like $2 per board foot. I contacted a close friend last night who occasionally will sell a few saw logs. His opinion was somewhat inline with what I'm hearing here. There is some $$ to be had, but most likely not worth the hassle or effort. The sawmill he uses is so darn picky, he usually ends up burning the straights he finds too. AND he has free gas - meaning he doesn't actually need the wood at all!
Now that buzz-saw has his mill up and running i see boards instead of firewood. The man logistical problem is getting logs to his place with no tractor or means to gets a logs on my truck. Make some calls and maybe find a miller with a portable bandsaw. Know anyone with an Alaskan chain saw mill? They sound like nice logs and it was ashamed to cut them. Id like to find some cherry around here to mill. Let us know how you make out
I've tried twice on nice Cherry at a mill about 15 miles from me. Both times the grader was pretty harsh imo. I told him the were in a fairly deep woods, likely no metal etc. The amount he offered I just left them on my trailer & haven't bothered again. They want big loads & logs. 7' will likely bring you nothing. Band mill or burn I'd think.
So I spoke with a close friend who has approximately 200 acres, much of which is wooded. He has sold many of saw logs over the years but advised me to use what I have as firewood. Our area is plentiful with prime hardwoods so loggers and mills are able to be more picky about what is brought to them. He does not burn firewood (free gas) so anything that he cuts usually gets thrown on a bonfire just to get rid of it unless I come to harvest for firewood. So when he does come across a saw log, he is more inclined to try and sell it. He said the majority of the time its not worth the hassle on a few logs. As Amateur Cutter posted above, he too has made trips to the mill and returned without ever unloading the logs. With my busy schedule, I don't have time to fuss around over a couple hundred bucks. I think I'm going to (unfortunately) buck these bad boys up in my 16" rounds and split/stack 'em. Oh well.
My woodturning students first five projects are turned from firewood. It's cheap. And when they make a mistake I tell them, "it was firewood, now it is a piece of designer firewood!" So think of it as designer firewood. If you know of a woodturner, might give them a call and offer a couple of pieces, maybe they will turn you and your friend something for the other pieces of wood you give them.
I just sold some nice (#1) Black Cherry. The furniture maker paid $875/MBF (thousand board feet). The loggers and the trucker got a bunch of that, and I got a little.
The logging company did the marketing (my logs from this cut have gone to at least 4 different mills). I don’t know if this mill would have dealt with me directly for such small volume.
A yard 10 miles away buys logs, and would pay $500/MBF for the size logs I had. They might buy a couple logs at a time.
Go on FB marketplace. Search for lumber. Should get quite a few hits from home owned sawmills selling their wood. Send a message to all in your area asking if they are interested. Chances are they’ll want to saw the wood for you, for a fee, and let you sell it. More money but more time and hassle.
My goodness. To think if furniture that was made before is so highly sought out but boards are more of a hassle than help today, no wonder furniture makers are fewer and less likely to take it. More are now used to making MDF furniture as cost effective solutions. It's really mind-blowing that while lumber in and of itself is thought to be expensive on a huge scale but getting to that is based on the equipment cost and worker skill times supply/material risk. If your saw has expensive bands and the wood is likely to have metal inside due to being a residential tree...risk is too high and could burn up more saw bands than the wood is even worth. The math only works out that since equipment has gone on a rise, wood can be plentiful enough which doesn't hold much value unless it has qualities in the wood grain that are desirable. It doesn't hurt to try on an amateur scale if you have the equipment but professionals have learned that mistake of risk quite often in their career and to keep trying is insanity to them as it often deals them the same results. I thought the same thing on a plum tree that was down in a windstorm but if the tree trunk isn't big enough, it doesn't yield the amount of lumber for any sale as often milling is more wasteful. Meaning they will cut more off to get the prime parts of the cut but that prime cut is likely only 20% of the whole thing. At $100 minimum they told me based on what they could see, I hardly had much and wouldn't have a cut that could sell as a valued profit. Some do take cuts as part of their share but only if there's a workable market for it but they are like tree guys who won't do the work for free and look at you like you're off your rocker if you suggest they can take the wood for the job. Doesn't work that way if the return is shoddy.
