Timberman
Senior Member
Walnut is rarely used for flooring.
NC is right tho southern Appalachian hardwood is very good.
To answer your question nobody but a hobbyist is gonna come cut 2 walnut yard trees
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Is a mature black walnut tree worth anything?
- Thread starter Shadow11
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Walnut is rarely used for flooring.
NC is right tho southern Appalachian hardwood is very good.
To answer your question nobody but a hobbyist is gonna come cut 2 walnut yard trees
"Maybe for flooring?" Southern Appalachian hardwood is the premier stuff for anything. They export it to people who build some of the world's most expensive furniture, and suchlike. The flatland stuff, probably not. I don't think you understand the difference between most of Georgia and the mountains. It is basically southern Canada here climatewise, once you get up out of the valleys.
And no, they wouldn't touch two trees, much less yard trees that have metal in them 99% of the time. They buy high-grade green lumber, dry kiln it, regrade, and export.
Mr Bya Lungshot
BANNED LUNATIC FRINGE
black walnut grown in GEORGIA is the poorest grade walnut on the planet.
The rest y’all can hash out but nobody’s coming for free.
GeorgeShu
Senior Member
About 30 yrs ago I was talking an elderly neighbor near Statesboro Who also did some wood working. He showed me some of his wood collection and stories of how he found the various species. He had several hundred board feet of walnut. Said he was driving back from Savannah one day when he met a log truck headed into the pulp mill. He turned around and got the driver to pull over. It was a load of black walnut, driver said it was cut on some land next to the Ogeechee railroad. He purchased to load from the driver and had it delivered to a local saw mill. Had it sawed into 2 and 4 inch slabs and stored it to air dry in a old chicken barn, all stickered up nice.
He had made some really nice pieces from the wood, sold some of the finer figured pieces toa gun stock maker.
I purchase a good amount and made some furniture, boxes, picture frames and several other odds and ends with it.
One of the neat features in some of the wood was imbeded bird shot. When I found some of the lead pellets he said many years prior that they used to run a train along the tracks and sold tickets to shooters so they could shoot at birds. The imbedded pellts make for an interesting tale of life long ago in SE Georgia.
point being there an be some good walnut in Georgia but there may be better grown eslewhere.
He had made some really nice pieces from the wood, sold some of the finer figured pieces toa gun stock maker.
I purchase a good amount and made some furniture, boxes, picture frames and several other odds and ends with it.
One of the neat features in some of the wood was imbeded bird shot. When I found some of the lead pellets he said many years prior that they used to run a train along the tracks and sold tickets to shooters so they could shoot at birds. The imbedded pellts make for an interesting tale of life long ago in SE Georgia.
point being there an be some good walnut in Georgia but there may be better grown eslewhere.
Timberman
Senior Member
I still have a couple thousand feet of 4/4 in an old barn in Pomaria SC
I'm talking about the Southern Appalachian MOUNTAIN district of Georgia. You know, that nearly third of the state up there that everybody ignores? It's a different world from the rest of Georgia. A tree doesn't pay much attention to a state line. Western NC/North GA/Eastern TN are all the same difference, same place, with a couple imaginary lines drawn on the ground.
I agree that nobody's probably coming for free, unless they can find somebody with a band mill or something that cuts small amounts and has a market for it.
ol bob
Senior Member
Some of the nicest black walnut I have ever seen came from the S.C., Ga line around Anderson made some high dollar custom call out of it they are in collection to nice to use.
Anvil Head
Senior Member
This is quite accurate. Yard trees are a no-no to a business mill. Hobby mills may take them but better skin and scan before cutting deep.
godogs57
Senior Member
I very respectfully take exception to this. Here is a stock I built from a farm 12 miles over the GA line in upstate SC. The man that gave this to me planted the walnut on his farm when he was a boy in hopes of making him a gunstock out of it later in life. He passed away from cancer before he could achieve his goal, giving the plank to me to finish the task. I took my time with this, completing it in about a year. I've posted these pics before but felt I'd show folks that SE Walnut does have character.
godogs57
Senior Member
Yard trees are definately not to be sawed up unless you 152% know the history of the tree. Most old timers routinely hammered nails in walnut trees as they believed it positively affected the walnuts. Either the yield or the taste...I honestly can't remember which one it was.
That is a beautiful piece of wood, and beautiful craftsmanship that you used to bring out the spirit in it.
godogs57
Senior Member
Thanks so much! I knew I had one shot to get this thing right...I had to be patient with every sliver of wood I took off. The plank of wood had sap wood on both ends...the white stuff. I had to add a recoil pad and a rosewood forend tip to compensate for the shortness of the plank. As I remember, when I laid the pattern out, I had about a quarter inch of solid wood left on either end before I hit sapwood. I'm more proud of my patience than I am of the end result, as impatience is often my Achilles heel on long term projects like this. I did not do the checkering on this stock for that reason...the man that did it later told me that was the hardest stock he had ever checkered.
ol bob
Senior Member
That's what I had looked like and as you said hard as a rock, I've used walnut from all over the world and it was the best I've ever had.
I don't think I would pay anyone to cut and haul off a mature walnut tree. Lot's of people have portable mills and they just metal detect it and dig out the nails. They tell me bullets don't hurt the blades as much. I've had some sawed without problems a couple of times. I guess I don't know good walnut from bad. To me it's all pretty.
Shadow11
Senior Member
I'm glad I posted this. I've learned a lot. You guys are the best.
Yes, these are yard trees. There's probably some bbs, bird shot, or .22 bullets in there somewhere... from my brother, dad, and myself trying to shoot squirrels over the last 40 yrs. I think my folks might have had a bird house or two hung up at some point. That's pretty much it.
They're near the sautee nacoochee area, which isn't the mountains, but more like the foothills I guess. The temperature is usually a bit cooler here than the surrounding folks. They have grown very well. Especially the bigger one. It used to have a giant limb that grew over the driveway. It broke off several years ago. The diameter of the trunk grows up past that knot. There has to be good wood there.
Anyway, it's definitely meant for a hobbyist, or someone with a mini saw mill. The trees are right next to the driveway, so they are very easy access. This is all very good info though. I had no idea. Thanks!
Yes, these are yard trees. There's probably some bbs, bird shot, or .22 bullets in there somewhere... from my brother, dad, and myself trying to shoot squirrels over the last 40 yrs. I think my folks might have had a bird house or two hung up at some point. That's pretty much it.
They're near the sautee nacoochee area, which isn't the mountains, but more like the foothills I guess. The temperature is usually a bit cooler here than the surrounding folks. They have grown very well. Especially the bigger one. It used to have a giant limb that grew over the driveway. It broke off several years ago. The diameter of the trunk grows up past that knot. There has to be good wood there.
Anyway, it's definitely meant for a hobbyist, or someone with a mini saw mill. The trees are right next to the driveway, so they are very easy access. This is all very good info though. I had no idea. Thanks!
Pig Predator
Useles Billy’s Fishel Hog Killer ?
I consider sautee and nacoochee mtns. Maybe you can find a hobbyist that will get them. Craig's list will have your phone burning up. Just have to weed through a buncha quacks.
godogs57
Senior Member
your best figure is going to be below ground....the tap root. That is obviously where you get your stump figure, as shown on my stock. Good bet there are no nails below ground.
As some indicated above, the wood may be valuable (won't know unless you fell it and see if how much clear wood it has in it), but not as a single tree growing in somebody's yard.
You'd have to cut it down, then you's have to cut it into bolts or logs of a size you can handle and haul to a mill. Then somebody would have to clean up the debris (and there would be A LOT of it).
Haul it to a mill like this:
http://www.hamsleyhardwood.com/
and have him mill it into lumber or rifle blanks. The air dry it for a couple years or find somebody to kiln dry it.......etc... a lot of work for somebody to do and you probably wouldn't have any takers.
I do know a hobbyist that did this to a small stand of walnut left after a logging job and it was a lot of work. But he created a lifetime supply of walnut and basically built all the furniture in his house.
Elkbane
You'd have to cut it down, then you's have to cut it into bolts or logs of a size you can handle and haul to a mill. Then somebody would have to clean up the debris (and there would be A LOT of it).
Haul it to a mill like this:
http://www.hamsleyhardwood.com/
and have him mill it into lumber or rifle blanks. The air dry it for a couple years or find somebody to kiln dry it.......etc... a lot of work for somebody to do and you probably wouldn't have any takers.
I do know a hobbyist that did this to a small stand of walnut left after a logging job and it was a lot of work. But he created a lifetime supply of walnut and basically built all the furniture in his house.
Elkbane
treemanjohn
Banned
Climate plays a major role in lumber value. Slow growing trees from a northern or mountainous climate are more desirable.
That said you really don't know what you have until you saw it. I've cut a lot of trees, but never for free
I do know a gentleman who bought 4 walnut stumps in Blairsville several years back and paid $1I for then and dug them out. He was a knife maker
That said you really don't know what you have until you saw it. I've cut a lot of trees, but never for free
I do know a gentleman who bought 4 walnut stumps in Blairsville several years back and paid $1I for then and dug them out. He was a knife maker
jiminbogart
TCU Go Frawgs !
I'll add my $.02 as an owner of a band sawmill and someone who clears a lot of trees(I'm a builder/developer).
Your best bet is to find someone with a band sawmill that will drop the trees for the wood. I would not go this route unless trees can be dropped 360 degrees without hitting something.
I would be concerned about liability if the people removing the trees were killed or injured.
You would also be left with a big mess to clean up when they were done.
When I give away 'free" wood I have the stems stacked and ready to load.
I put an add on CL for "free wood must take all" and a flatbed OO called and said he would take it. I loaded with my machine.
It would(no pun intended) have been cheaper and easier to throw it in a dumpster but I hate to see wood go to waste.
My dually got stuck in the mud and I did $3k+ damage when I backed into a 3.5" diameter pine tree. Dually truck bed sides are expensive to replace and so is 3 stage paint. Luckily I found a takeoff bed in pearl white for $800. No good deed goes unpunished.
I just posted the pics because everybody like to look at pics.
Here is an interesting thread on walnut on the forestry forum.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=98933.0
There maybe someone there that wants the logs.
Your best bet is to find someone with a band sawmill that will drop the trees for the wood. I would not go this route unless trees can be dropped 360 degrees without hitting something.
I would be concerned about liability if the people removing the trees were killed or injured.
You would also be left with a big mess to clean up when they were done.
When I give away 'free" wood I have the stems stacked and ready to load.
I put an add on CL for "free wood must take all" and a flatbed OO called and said he would take it. I loaded with my machine.
It would(no pun intended) have been cheaper and easier to throw it in a dumpster but I hate to see wood go to waste.
My dually got stuck in the mud and I did $3k+ damage when I backed into a 3.5" diameter pine tree. Dually truck bed sides are expensive to replace and so is 3 stage paint. Luckily I found a takeoff bed in pearl white for $800. No good deed goes unpunished.
I just posted the pics because everybody like to look at pics.
Here is an interesting thread on walnut on the forestry forum.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=98933.0
There maybe someone there that wants the logs.
