Butternut

[Chuck White]

Got a friend who has some butternut to cut if there is a market for it!

What would be a good price per board foot, if he decides to sell the lumber?

[Banjo picker]

I am betting Dodgy Loner & Swampdonkey will give you an answer on this as they are the butternut gurus.  I planted about 30 this fall that D L sent me.  I mainly planted them for diversity of the woods though.   Tim

[mike_van]

Can't help with the price, but butternut  logs are really nice to saw. The lumber from it is great to work with too. Most of it's dying off around me, sadly.

[Dodgy Loner]

I can't help you with the price, because butternut is pretty rare around here, so very little of it is sold.  The price should be cheaper than walnut or cherry, but better than red or white oak.  I know that carvers like it, because it's soft enough to carve extremely well and has better color than other traditional carving stock, like basswood and yellow-poplar.  It may pay to cut some thicker stock if your friend can market the wood to carvers.

[SwampDonkey]

I have bought if for around $0.90 a foot, freshly sawed, not kilned. In NB it is only found in tributaries of the Saint John River and only the southern half. Butternut is worth more than cherry around here, cherry is so badly diseased too much defect. I wouldn't be surprised if it could fetch up to $1.20 a bf. It's very soft, but when even air dried good it doesn't move much. I have a 3 foot deep desk than might move 1/8" or a touch more on the back on sliding dovetails. For carving you need real sharp tools, since the fibres are prone to collapse when chiseling with dull tools. It's bugger to sand to. The grain keeps lifting every time you wash the dust off it before you even apply a finish, but beautiful wood.

Building a foot locker from some now.

[Chuck White]

I told him I'd saw it!  It really saws nice.

I suggested it be sawn oversize, for 1x8, saw 5/4x9, etc.  This would allow for shrinkage and planing/sanding!

I'm taking it from SwampDonkey,s post that somewhere around $1.00/bf would be good, but not too high priced.

I sawed some this past summer for a customer and was able to get several (6-8) that were 6/4x12x8.  He said he wasn't sure what he'd do with it, but he put it in his drying barn right away.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, good advice on sawing a bit over sized, most woods shrink a 1/16 per 2" in width at equilibrium moisture content (MC of surrounding air that the wood will be in service). Most of the time your only going to want 7/8 after planing and sanding. That's the thickness I target on my projects.

There is often some nice "figured" pieces to. Most of the time the grain is straight as an arrow. But sometimes you get a piece that looks like the outlines of stain. It ain't stain though, just the way some pieces saw out. It has waves, not like curly, just a wavy grain. Hard to explain. You can see it in oak to. Some looks plain and simple, some has a lot of character. I'll dig up a picture here in my gallery.

[SwampDonkey]

Here is the plain stuff.




Here is the curly que stuff.




If it were me, I would be pulling it from the general pile and marketing it as figured butternut or something. Beautiful stuff.

[Engineer]

I bought a bunch from a now-defunct local mill, about fifteen years ago, for $1 a board foot, log run.  I was not allowed to pick the pile, just take off the top.  The best boards were on the bottom.   

I also picked up a fair bit in a trade a while back, it was all full of wormholes and what appeared to be ant tunnels.  Really neat looking stuff.

It's easy to work like basswood or pine but much nicer looking.  I'd be willing to give $1+ a board feet fresh off the log, or $2+ for good dry roughsawn stock.  I've never had a chance to saw any but I'd like to.  I have several dead butternut trees on my land but all are too small to make sawing worthwhile.  It makes lousy firewood, too.

[leweee]

Bone up on'er quick.

BUTTERNUT CANKER

[SwampDonkey]

Great page lewee, sure seems to be taking hold of butternut in that area. I don't see any canker here yet. I drove along the river in the Fredericton area and in the small gullies leading into the river I still picked out a lot of healthy looking trees as some one else was driving the car. I saw some along the waters edge of the islands that come close to the shore line of the mainland. Many of the island butternut were cut off for farming so only a few populate along the rivers edge mixed in among the silver maples. The ridge out behind the farm which can be followed up through here for miles was full of butternut, still a few babies germinating after everyone clear cut their ground around here. I can find all kinds of young trees. It was a moist rich maple woods like in that study. Much of the good ground is now fields and mostly all cut off in the last 20 years. Just small patches left from farm to farm. Dad's farm had a couple small streams out behind the potato shed with butternut all along it. The back on that ridge had butternut on everyone's woodlot. Dad never cut off his patch out there so we had some tall straight butternut and new ones coming on as we only cut the junk trees for firewood out there. Down in Hartland, I found a lot with many new butternut trees on a site that was thinned out. I think over harvesting is doing as bad a number on their survival, yet on those clear cuts there are new germinants coming on to. You never find pure stands of the stuff. Dad was always talking about growing hardwood sawlogs, so he never high graded our ground. Unfortunately the economy of farming being what it is, most of the woods has been cut since I finished college, but not the butternut ground.

[WDH]

I think that $1.00 per Bd-ft is too cheap to sell butternut lumber.  I am with Engineer.........I would price it at least $2.00 per Bd-ft.  Someone will buy it.   

[SwampDonkey]

Yes if dried, $2/bf  seems reasonable. Get what ever the market will bear I guess. I don't know what the broker price is because I doubt they handle any much. Butternut isn't going to stand up to much rough handling that I see going on in that place.

[Chuck White]

Would it be better to cut the logs now (winter) while the sap is in the root system?

Seems this would cut way down on the drying time!

We don't plan on sawing until April at the earliest!

I think if it were cut now and over-length and stacked up, off the ground would be a good idea!

What do you guys think?

[Engineer]

The best thing to do is to cut the tree right before you saw it.  Barring that, if you can get them off the ground and end-sealed, you should be fine.  Butternut heartwood is surprisingly decay-resistant.  I have an 18" diameter short log, probably 5' long, that I started cutting into for firewood yesterday, and it's been on the ground for over three years.  It's still solid and clean.

[SwampDonkey]

I had logs sawed after 2 years on the ground and no stain, but there were tiny beetle holes and checking gets real bad if not sealed. Surprised there were no Buprestid holes. I made a lean to with butternut for framing and a sheet of tin over the top, been 10 years still good to go. I put it over my basement window I toss my firewood into because it has a small slope toward the house. The lean to deflects the snow and rain away.

The last butternut I cut was in September with leaves on to draw the sap out, limbed, bucked and twitched out in October and sawed in next May. You will get some beetle holes, tiny ambrosia I think. So fresh is always best. It's not going to take drying time like white oak or anything.

[Chuck White]

Thanks for all of the inputs on this thread!

I think we'll saw some out at 4" (for possible carvers market) then when we get to the wider part, we'll do the 5/4x9.

Probably even do some short logs if there are any!

[Dodgy Loner]

Sounds like a good plan.  I always find that I'm short on thick stock.  Need to start sawing more 12/4 and 16/4 stock when I come across nice logs!  I usually don't cut anything 5/4 unless I'm expecting it to warp considerably, but I mill most of my stock to 3/4".  Some folks like it thicker. 

[SW_IOWA_SAWYER]

I cut a few butternut logs every year. I also wood carve so I know a little about the butternut market for carvers. I cut mine thick mostly 4" or thicker. I also cut all the chunks up including the second pass on the mill. Called bark on boards (bark all the way around they use those for woodburning pictures). I have a kiln and dry it all and sell it in the 4.00 a bdft range. It needs to be clear, no or very few defects for carvers to buy it. The bigger blocks 6X6 or 8X8 sell for more as they are harder to find and get clear lumber for. People use it for carving western figures indians, mountain men, cowboys, etc. Find a carving club near you and let them know you have good quality butternut and it will sell. I did this a while back the photo here isn't completed but you can kind of see the idea. This block was 3" thick and about 8" wide and about 18" long.

[cheyenne]

Butternut is hard to come by here in N.Y. if it were me I'd cut it thick 4 inchs and long and wait for someone who wants a beautiful big table if not I'd keep it and make a table for myself.....Cheyenne     

[SwampDonkey]

That's the thing about butternut, as far as I understand it, it doesn't grow in huge numbers anyplace, but common enough to not call rare. I can drive along the river and see trees here and there, never a bunch with more than 20 trees.

Kinda like bur oak here. How come we have both in NB, but none in NS or PEI?

[cheyenne]

SwampDonkey: I remember a nice stand of it next to the bridge at Grand Falls back in 86.....Cheyenne

[SwampDonkey]

I've never seen any further north than Medford, about 15 miles south of there along a small stream. There is some in St Jaques, transplanted in the Botanical garden. I've never seen any along the bridges up at Grand Falls though, have to look sharper I guess. Mostly what you get up that way is balm-of-gilead. Old ones kind of branch off like butternut when the tops die back some. Which bridge? TCH? If so, they are probably gone since the 4-lane added a new bridge.

[cheyenne]

The foot bridge at the water falls. But that was in 86. I'm sure a lot has changed...........Cheyenne.....P.S....Ever been to moms in greenville for the steak sandwitches.