Not logging larger walnut ?

[Daren]

I had a guy stop by today while I was milling. Kind of a knock around fellow who hits my slab pile for firewood. He is a firewood cutter and brings me some logs too when he finds a good one. Anyway he knows I like walnut crotch and said he would take me to a logged job of a buddy of his. His buddy told him he could have all the tops the logger left to clean up the job and the guy said the ground was littered with nice crotches. We are going out there to see what I can find.

The thing that struck me funny was he said there are huge walnuts still standing too. The loggers did not want anything over 24". They told the land owner they would be rotten in the middle, didn't want them and did not cut any of the bigger ones.

Is this true ? I have milled many over 24", even over 36" all where sound. But I am not a logger so I have not cut any big ones down to be disappointed, just got them as they showed up.

[Dave Shepard]

About the only black walnut I've seen around here are estate trees, usually in front of a house. Some are well over 3'. Most have a nice hole at the base where the chipmunks are going in and out of them. Big trees with a hollow in the middle sure aren't what the commercial mills want to see, but, in my thinking, are just right for a small bandmill. They are really easy to quarter with a chainsaw for better handling with that hollow in the middle. I was told a story about the Mass. champion black cherry a couple of years ago. It was on state land, but near the border of a private timber harvest. The logger thief cut it down only to find it rotten in the middle. He chopped 2' blocks off all the way up the trunk, and found no "saleable" logs. This was a large tree, and would have been easy to salvage on any type of sawmill, the quarters would certainly have been managable on any mill. I can understand the mentality of commercial harvesting, it has to make economic sense to be viable, but throw away high grade material just because it doesn't fit one particular method really bothers me.


Dave

[Left Coast Chris]

The most common situation we have out here with the Claro Black Walnut is that they are mostly yard trees. The tendency of the Claro (California) Black Walunt is to branch out pretty low.  For a yard tree the owner will trim the lower limbs off after they have gotten some size and not treat the cut.  Eventually it rots down into the center.   All of the trees Ive seen that did not have trimmed lower limbs were not rotten in the center.  Probably does not happen all the time but this is the most frequent occurance.

[Ron Wenrich]

There are outward signs that will tell you if the tree is hollow in the middle.  Sometimes there are holes, and sometimes the bark looks different.  I don't know of any logger that would turn his nose up at walnut that may have the defect unless they are only looking for veneer.

I have been in some oak stands where the larger trees had butt rot.  The likely culprit there was fire.  That may be a problem with the walnut.  It may also be that the stands used to be grazed.  So, the older trees would have the problem and the younger ones would be OK.

As for cutting chunks off the logs, you do that to improve the value of the log.  Loggers make money in marketing logs, not just cutting them into the longest log they can get.  Cutting off 2 or 4 foot can double or triple the value of the log.  It makes good sense to cut off the defect, especially in something like cherry where the veneer value was $8/bf.

I've had many hollow logs that rolled onto the carriage.  No need to quarter them.  I cut off the usable wood and the rest goes into the chipper.

[Dave Shepard]

As for cutting chunks off the logs, you do that to improve the value of the log.  Loggers make money in marketing logs, not just cutting them into the longest log they can get.  Cutting off 2 or 4 foot can double or triple the value of the log.  It makes good sense to cut off the defect, especially in something like cherry where the veneer value was $8/bf.

I've had many hollow logs that rolled onto the carriage.  No need to quarter them.  I cut off the usable wood and the rest goes into the chipper.

I understand why he did it, but if he had looked up the hole, he would have seen that the hollow ran a long way up. Also, it wasn't his DanG tree.


Dave