Black walnut

[bobg]

       Anyone have any idea what a black walnut tree is worth?  A friend of mine has a big black walnut tree that blew over in the wind storm we had a while ago. He was offered $150 for it. Says there is no way he will sell it for that price.

[mcbammer]

I  have  heard  of   some   huge  trees   going   for  as  much  as  5000.00$.  They   even   dig  up  the  roots.

[Brett]

If the tree is at least 18" in diameter 4.5' from the ground and is straight, relatively free of defects and low branches it could fetch considerably more money.   Smaller trees with lots of lower branches or crooked trunks are pretty much good only for firewood.   

[bobg]

    This tree is about 30" accrosed. Not sure what that would figure out to in diameter. 6 or 7 feet is very straight. Some big branches up higher.

[hillbill]

id just cut the logs out of it, call your local log buyer first and see what length and how they like them cut.then haul them into the buyer. you will get whatever market price is for your grade log. there are a lot of things that determine the price on a walnut log.if you only have 6 or 7ft of straight log and some big limbs that can be cut for logs also, it may not be worth that much.a very uniform straight log of longer lengths can be very valuable. a lot of people have a greatly inflated veiw of what their log is worth and are often dissapointed. for best price take it straight to the mill, avoid middlemen who want to buy it and just take it to the same place that you could take it to yourself. however if you have no way to cut or load and haul it then yu are not going to get the best price.

[blind ear]

At one time golf club makers and veneer cutters paid a lot but they bought all the desireable trees in a stand of woods. Blsck walmut are relatively abundant in the US. That is a big one though. ear

[Conan The Librarian]

My buddy had a big black walnut that had to be removed and he figured he could get a few thousand dollars for it. He thought it would be easy to sell, but it was not! He made a lot of phone calls and got offers little better than free removal of the tree. I think he found somebody that gave him $300, but it was not easy. This was a huge old tree in fine condition and with a thick trunk.


It may be different in your area, but I recommend you hut agressively for a buyer.


Good luck!

[mcbammer]

With   the  current   economy   the   demand   is  likely   way  down for  walnut   .  Price   is   relative   to   demand.

[bobg]

      Thanks for the replies guys. Now he tells me maybe he will have  his son cut it up and see if he can sell it for fire wood. Seems like a waste of nice black walnut to me.

[PowPow]

Then he shouldn't mind letting you have a hunk of the trunk.
You could make something cool out of it.
My mom still uses the black walnut salad bowl i made in shop class 40 years ago.
I still remember the sting of those chips flying off the lathe and hitting my hands, but it sure turned out nice.

[bobg]

     Talked to the guy with the tree this morning. He sold it for $500. Showed me the paper work for it. The trunk was 9' 8" in diameter. 17' knot free. Guy cut it up loaded on his truck cut all the rest into fire wood and stacked it. Said he did not want the fire wood. Has a guy coming today to0 buy the fire wood.

[mcbammer]

     Talked to the guy with the tree this morning. He sold it for $500. Showed me the paper work for it. The trunk was 9' 8" in diameter. 17' knot free. Guy cut it up loaded on his truck cut all the rest into fire wood and stacked it. Said he did not want the fire wood. Has a guy coming today to0 buy the fire wood.

Are  you  sure  that  isnt  9feet  8  circumfrence  not   diameter.  IF  so  thats  got  to  be a  record  size   tree.

[Buckskin]

They can be worth and unbelievable amount of money. I've heard of them being stolen by helicopter, so that should give an idea of value... One thing that detracts from the value is yard trees. Pretty hard to find a tree in a yard that hasn't had spikes driven into them over it's lifetime.  Root system can be pulled out and used for high grade rifle stocks if you're lucky...

[scotsman]

There are a couple of large walnut mills near where I live. One of them, Midwest Walnut sells tons of gunstocks blanks a year. A tree like you described here might be worth 7-800 dollars. Could be that it would vary from place to place. The market is way down from what it was several years ago.

[bobg]

      As you can tell i am not good at math. mcbammer is right. It was not diameter.

[hillbill]

sounds like he got a pretty good deal for a dead tree he did not have any labor in.even better if he can sell the firewood. walnut firewood is not worth much around here as we have so much oak.there is a lot of bark and not near the btu's as oak.it does burn pretty colors in a fireplace tho.

[blind ear]

A few weeks back pulp wood was selling for less than $6.00 a TON. Doesn't seem that would pay for the fuel. ear

[bobg]

    This tree was not dead when the wind blew it down. Blew a tree down at his neighbors too. The word was the wind hit 90 mph in places. Not sure about that. I live 2 miles from him and the wind here didn't even blow the tarp off my snow blower. Looks like he broke even. Guy told him if he raked up all the branches he would bring in a chipper and chip it all, grind the stump and fill the hole it left for $500. Even told him they would take down an old box elder tree there too. A couple of his sons buddies raked up the branches and picked up all the walnuts and told him he owed each of them a couple beers. They are both in their 20's so that was legal. Had a guy coming last night to buy the fire wood. Told him the deal was he had to take the box elder too.  Looks like he did ok to me.
 
 

[nw_hunter]

A fellow I know here in Oregon thinned out his walnut orchard of about 30 or so trees.
They were English walnuts (Thin shells) but they were grafted to Black walnut roots when planted years ago.I hear they are all done that way. The Burls (Black Walnut bases) sold for over a thousand a piece.

Should make some purdy gun stocks!