iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

My walnut thread

Started by nativewolf, December 02, 2017, 08:38:24 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

nativewolf

Ok, thought I'd post a bit about the topic of walnut.  First I have been having a terrible time with my phone, lost lots and lots of photos after to reboots.  Sigh.

Here's a picture of the 4th load getting moved onto the deck.  In this load we have to unload logs from my small flatbed (24' Hino flatbed) onto the deck where my logger can then load them onto his truck.  Mostly buck up at this point.  Not a great day today as 3 great great logs went south on us by 4-7 inches and we lost maybe $3K going from veneer to really good sawlogs. 

This was the first; thought we'd cut out of the metal and the log had barely enough room for 2 logs.  Sigh, hit stain again.  I won't even sell that one, just keep it for my personal use.



Not all lost though because the next tree (which also had 2 flaws right where they killed veneer grade) had limbs that were sawlogs.  18" sawlog at the small end of the second log cut off this branch, 7' logs is mostly what I cut at this diameter.



Maybe I can post a few logs that will make veneer next week, one is a great tree, question is 9 or 8' veneer.  Any longer and it will move into a crotch.  I'll keep the crotch and sell the log.  Another was a powerline neighbor, had to cable it high up the trunk and pull, but it is 16' to 24" DIB.  Not a single flaw. 
Liking Walnut

nativewolf



30" walnut coming down.  Very difficult cut this was, gutted out center and still cracked a bit.  The real problem was a small open rotten spot in the base, could not cut it out as there were large knots up the trunk.  Potential big payday gone.  However, our cutter did superb job getting it down safely and quickly with only 1 branch busted and no save trees touched.

Here's a typical situation in Walnut, every 6" counts so if we still have crotch double branch showing we'll shave 6" off til we get a single pith, this was perfect, 6" cut with flipped to show we got out of the crotch.  It saved this log at 10'6" and we'll ask for veneer for this one.



That is the log, a bit wide sapwood but today we can still get veneer on this, maybe just $5/bdft but we'll take it after a rough rough day and very inaccessible logs.
Liking Walnut

mike_belben

Praise The Lord

nativewolf

https://www.buyvatrees.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=WALNUT__BLACK_1-0

Virginia State Dept of Forestry sells seedlings, out of stock right now but 1000 for $315 is a good price.  Commercial nurseries are about 50% more but that is still cheap cheap.

You can also plant seeds or just put a bunch of seeds in some old composting sawdust and keep it wet, they'll sprout and you can plant viable seedlings right where you want them. 
Liking Walnut

nativewolf

Quote from: mike_belben on December 02, 2017, 09:24:55 PM
Nice

We got the truck load, 2.5k bdft but it was a full 8 hour day for 3 of us.  We'll be lucky if that is a $6k load and quite a bit of that is costs.  Thursday was an amazing day 6 hours and 4 of 8 were veneer trees.  Haven't even bucked them yet.  Twice the net and less effort. 
Liking Walnut

mike_belben

If its any consolation, ill split wood all year for less.
Praise The Lord

nativewolf

Man we are lucky as pigs in swill, flys on honey, or TN football with a 1 game winning streak.  Yep, no complaints here.  Need to fix our broken down skidder...no other complaints.  Wish I could mechanize the felling somehow, need a large machine to properly hold and drop 30" hardwood, even walnut (which is light). 
Liking Walnut

nativewolf

Ok, had several private messages.  In the interest of this forum I'm going to respond globally but I completely understand if the message is private.

So, Walnut pricing.  I don't really have super special logs there in those pictures.  The picture where we chased the crotch out moved that from $2.5/bdft  to maybe 4 but I hope $5/bdft.  Really the question is how to slice the log to maximize the grade and small end diameter given that we can sell down 4' and 7' increments can pay 3.5. 

We get, at a minimum, $1/bdft for anything walnut, even firewood.

We sell down to 4' increments.  I sold a leftover chunk of 20" 5' long walnut for $130 last week.  Any other species it would have been in the burn pile.

Veneer rejects question: if it does not make veneer and is a large log, like some pictures I'll post later today, we will get at least $3/bdft but maybe $3.5/bdft. 

If it is really a crotch piece they will slaughter the crotch and leave one stem as the DIB that they are buying and then only pay 1.X or maybe 2.  Sigh. 

I have the most amazing crotch log to mark today and I'm a bit torn, I'm chasing a 9' veneer grade log (requiring 9'6") but I will likely still have a double stem.  In which case I am going to make a decision to leave it or cut
back 6" to get the double stem out.  However, I'm going to leave a crotch that is 4' wide.  Very flat and nice.  Wish I had a slab business built up I'd buy the log from the owner and keep it and slab it myself.  That's a story for 2 years down the line. 
Liking Walnut

nativewolf



well we got it loaded this morning, rolling first thing Monday and then get the last of this property bucked and loaded by the afternoon.
Liking Walnut

nativewolf

Ahh, one more thing.  This is going to be about 2500 bdft, walnut is crooked when you are shipping tops and branch pieces.  This was from 9 trees.  I'm finding that in our neck of the woods (n va) this is about average.  So 280 bdft per tree? 
Liking Walnut

NWP

Why would someone pay $1/bd ft for walnut firewood logs?
1999 Blockbuster 2222, 1997 Duratech HD10, 2021 Kubota SVL97-2, 2011 Case SV250, 2000 Case 1845C, 2004 Case 621D, John Deere 540A, 2011 Freightliner with Prentice 120C, 2012 Chevrolet, 1997 GMC bucket truck, several trailers, and Stihl saws.

nativewolf

Well they aren't using them for firewood obviously!   We aren't sure what the deal is and neither is our exporter.  In China they are doing something with them.  We all have seen someone salvage firewood and turn it into table legs, etc.  I guess that is what they are doing.  We ship down to a 8" top even though there is hardly any scale.  Where we really come ahead is sending fat cull pieces 4-6' long leftovers, maybe when we cut a sweep out or a bad knot, etc.  Then we still get paid for that footage and end up with a much higher grade log (just giving example).  Point being, 8" top any amount of curve,knot, sweep, etc it pays at $1/bdft. 
Liking Walnut

mike_belben

Wow. I hear about people feeding it to the stove all the time.

Our church pews have thick walnut millwork with a heavy sweep on the arm rest, almost an S bend.  Few hundred of em.  Someone made a few bucks on them twisty limbs. 
Praise The Lord

nativewolf

Quote from: mike_belben on December 04, 2017, 08:33:30 AM
Wow. I hear about people feeding it to the stove all the time.

Our church pews have thick walnut millwork with a heavy sweep on the arm rest, almost an S bend.  Few hundred of em.  Someone made a few bucks on them twisty limbs.

I know, I see guys advertising walnut in firewood postings.  Heck, I know a logger didn't even want to bother bidding on a stand that was part of a sale close to me that had 8 merchantable walnut trees and 2 of those probably veneer.  So he basically is saying, yeah I don't want to bother skidding out $4-5k in walnut.  I mean I would drive over for just that walnut.  Cut them and winch them with a tractor if we had to and parbuckle onto a trailer.  1 day work as it is very easy access some so close to the field that they'll fall in the field.  So, go figure, I don't get people in the business who don't understand walnut value/pricing.  I thought ok, if there is that level of misunderstanding..then I'd start this thread. 

Everyone on the forum has been great and very helpful and I didn't want others making the same mistake by leaving money on the table.
Liking Walnut

TKehl

I know what you mean.  I have to watch my OWN FAMILY!  Saw that dad had some small walnut on the back of the truck (under 4") where he was cutting in to some bigger firewood.  After I interrogated him  :D, it turned out to be just a dead limb that blew down.  I've tried to make sure they know not to cut even dead walnut of any size.

Have to mark firewood trees for my uncles and cousins.  They like to take nice straight White Oak about 10-12" diameter because, "it's easier to split" than the junky ones I mark.    >:( ::)
In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent. Loretta Lynn

nativewolf

Quote from: TKehl on December 04, 2017, 10:16:31 AM
I know what you mean.  I have to watch my OWN FAMILY!  Saw that dad had some small walnut on the back of the truck (under 4") where he was cutting in to some bigger firewood.  After I interrogated him  :D, it turned out to be just a dead limb that blew down.  I've tried to make sure they know not to cut even dead walnut of any size.

Have to mark firewood trees for my uncles and cousins.  They like to take nice straight White Oak about 10-12" diameter because, "it's easier to split" than the junky ones I mark.    >:( ::)

Ha, nice young WO firewood, nothing as nice.
Liking Walnut

Resonator

New guy question. Just curious, what is the "shelf life" of cut walnut logs? Worked with guy last summer that some cut along his property, and he had been burning them for firewood. He said they had been down for a couple years, and I wondered how fast walnut decays/attracts bugs and if it could be still usable. I would just be sawing them with my mill, not trying to sell logs. Thanks.
Under bark there's boards and beams, somewhere in between.
Cuttin' while its green, through a steady sawdust stream.
I'm chasing the sawdust dream.

Proud owner of a Wood-Mizer 2017 LT28G19

TKehl

Can't speak for commercial buyers, but I have some I'm itching to cut up that have been dead 5-10 years with all the sapwood rotted off.  The heartwood is what most people are after and it stays good a very long time.
In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent. Loretta Lynn

nativewolf

As long as just want the heartwood I think that forest floor aged walnut is the prettiest.  It just looks like dark milk chocolate. 

As Tkehl says the sapwood is gone but the heart remains.  Try some and post!  I have one I'm going to get sawn from my own property.

Got some more pictures I'll post tonight.
Liking Walnut

Resonator

It would be a road trip (to a neighboring state) to get to the logs, and I'm still running the numbers (fuel/time) if its worth the trip. It would be at least next year before I could get to them, but at least now I know the wood keeps for a long time, and could still be good. A relative, much closer to home, has a tree he plans to remove next to his house. That will probably the first walnut I run through my mill. Thanks for the info!
Under bark there's boards and beams, somewhere in between.
Cuttin' while its green, through a steady sawdust stream.
I'm chasing the sawdust dream.

Proud owner of a Wood-Mizer 2017 LT28G19

nativewolf

Quote from: Resonator on December 04, 2017, 07:05:59 PM
It would be a road trip (to a neighboring state) to get to the logs, and I'm still running the numbers (fuel/time) if its worth the trip. It would be at least next year before I could get to them, but at least now I know the wood keeps for a long time, and could still be good. A relative, much closer to home, has a tree he plans to remove next to his house. That will probably the first walnut I run through my mill. Thanks for the info!

Wonderful milling wood, drying can be more a challenge according to the drying experts. I have only air dried. 
Liking Walnut

nativewolf

https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=240419

Instead of growing pine maybe you guys should plant one of these, 20 acres, almost pure Walnut.


https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=240418

One of the nice ones.
https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=240417
Looking up the same trunk.  34" and 50' to first limbs. 

That one tree could be worth 3 acres of pine plantation. 

https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=240416
Just one more photo...about the average tree we'll cut off this grove.  Almost all are 16' to limbs, some 32, some more. 
Liking Walnut

samandothers

Wow, nice!

I am having to cut some walnut for a house site.  Most is smaller than should be cut but it is in the way.  A few trees are 16" or so dbh.   Fortunately there will still be some after the site is cleared to grow on!

nativewolf

If someone could fix my photos I'd be so appreciative.  I've got the links to the gallery but says I don't have permission to put photo in post?  Could do it before, sort of strange
Liking Walnut

mike_belben

Praise The Lord

Thank You Sponsors!