The Forestry Forum

General Forestry => Sawmills and Milling => Topic started by: Jeremy2200 on October 13, 2012, 08:23:03 PM

Title: Buying logs
Post by: Jeremy2200 on October 13, 2012, 08:23:03 PM
Got a quick question. I've always cut and sawn my on logs or went to someone else's site and sawn their logs. I was driving around town the other day and a tree company was removing some big straight oak trees. I pulled in and asked who was in charge. I was directed to an old black man and I asked him what he was going to do with the trees. His response was sell them to me if I wanted them. He told me to make him an offer and then mumbled some price per 1000 but I couldn't understand what he was saying. My question is what is a decent price for buying timber. Say a 20' long 24" diameter oak log. And same size pine. Just kinda need a ballpark price so I'll know what to offer if I wanna buy some logs one day. Also what was he talking about per 1000 per 1000 what. Do they sell it by weight or bdft or what.
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: customsawyer on October 13, 2012, 08:28:02 PM
Sounds like he was talking per BF. To offer advice as to what price will depend on what scale you use and if the logs are delivered or you pick them up.
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: beenthere on October 13, 2012, 08:57:15 PM
Offer him what YOU want to pay for them, and what they are worth to you. If you are happy with that price, and he is, all is good. Both happy.
If he won't sell for that price you offer, then he keeps them or you make a counter offer (or get a price from him)

No one else knows "what they are worth" or a decent price.
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: mikeb1079 on October 13, 2012, 09:06:42 PM
for me personally (as a hobbyist) i'm not gonna pay more than around 25 cents a bf when i pick them up.  therefore a 24" by 20' log scales around 500bf so i'd be paying around 125.  if he says no? i don't really care, there's plenty of logs in the world.   like beenthere said you gotta come up with what it's worth to you, then shoot him an offer based on that.   :)
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: bama20a on October 13, 2012, 09:51:22 PM
He's in the tree removal business,So he's been paid already for a job,Now he has got to remove the trees he's cut.
So to be able to sell the logs & get them out of his way is just an extra bonus,I'd go with a low ball price to start with,You can alway go up if you really want the logs.Mark,,,,,,
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: Sawdust Lover on October 13, 2012, 10:49:10 PM
I buy from 3 different tree companys. I pay around $25.00 to $50.00 per log. 24" x 14' average. Some of the larger logs are free if I can get them picked up asap because they are to big for them to handle. If they have black stains on the ends they are usually free because they have nails in them. Offer as little as you can, if they say no make sure you leave them a buisness card. Most likely they will call you back. Some of the tree experts have to pay to get rid of the trees they cut but some of them cut it for firewood.
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: moandrich on October 13, 2012, 10:57:17 PM
Are you sure he wasnt brown?  We were never allowed to describe people in that manner when we were growing up.  Did it really matter?
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: beenthere on October 13, 2012, 11:05:54 PM
We had to use the term "Negro" when I grew up. It keeps changing.
Prolly will change again.
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: moandrich on October 13, 2012, 11:25:04 PM
I don't know why you would even mention someones color or race, and why it would be pertinent to the price of the logs,
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: beenthere on October 13, 2012, 11:28:39 PM
Maybe only because it happened. Why make a point of the fact that he mentioned it? I had the thought that "hey, there was a colored person in charge" and that is a step up from years ago. Different points can be made.
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: moandrich on October 13, 2012, 11:32:38 PM
As long you also say "that white guy over there".
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: captain_crunch on October 13, 2012, 11:59:15 PM
ifn I get 1000 per thousand  out of your post RUN you would not recover anything that be about what kilned dried lumber is worth
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: Woodey on October 14, 2012, 12:39:21 AM
Trees around houses are subject to having nails and foreign objects in them. I will pick them up sometimes for free.

Some of the tree service people just pay the local dump by the cubic yard to dispose of them, that cost is already figured in the price they charge for removal.

I hate seeing nice trees go to the land fills.
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: Magicman on October 14, 2012, 07:48:59 AM
Quote from: Jeremy2200 on October 13, 2012, 08:23:03 PM
I pulled in and asked who was in charge. I was directed to an old black man and I asked him what he was going to do with the trees. 

Simply read what was said.  The fact that the OP was directed to "an old black man" was very pertinent.  The OP did not say it.  The person doing the directing gave specific directions as to who was in charge.  There is no problem with this conversation unless we try to make it something that it wasn't.

Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: TimGA on October 14, 2012, 08:02:01 AM
 Amen,     MM
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: slider on October 14, 2012, 08:09:59 AM
well said mm
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: moandrich on October 14, 2012, 08:14:23 AM
Your right, I apologize.
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: Magicman on October 14, 2012, 09:04:40 AM
So did you make an offer?  I have never paid more than $100 per Mbf for downed or salvaged trees/logs.  Mostly in the $50-$75 range. 
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: sigidi on October 14, 2012, 05:34:55 PM
Probably wont be much help, but down here logs like this fall into "salvage" classification for logs, that being said salvage runs about $40-$50 per cubic metre and you remove it from site - am I right in my remembering that 474 bft to a cubic metre?
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: DouginUtah on October 14, 2012, 09:14:54 PM
Quote from: sigidi on October 14, 2012, 05:34:55 PM
... am I right in my remembering that 474 bft to a cubic metre?

IIRC, it is 423 bft to the cubic metre.
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: logboy on October 14, 2012, 09:38:37 PM
A word of advice when buying yard trees. Over 90% of the yard trees I cut have metal or foreign objects in them. In fact, cutting a yard tree without metal in it is a rarity for me. I never pay top dollar for them, even if the metal detector says its clean. It wont catch ceramic insulators or rocks.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/26719/P9182913.JPG)

Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: sigidi on October 15, 2012, 08:05:31 AM
Just found out..... 1 cubic metre = 423.776001 board feet

so 424 would be pretty DanG close methinks so down here that would mean salvage logs are about 9c-11c per bft...
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: drobertson on October 15, 2012, 08:28:47 AM
sounds like some good size logs, If you want to be generous offer a fair price per scaled bd/ft. .20 would be a good price.  Look for stain in the oak, the pine often heals without sign of metal. Very tricky to tell.
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: Ron Wenrich on October 15, 2012, 09:30:56 AM
Galvanized metal will not turn blue in oak. 
Title: Re: Buying logs
Post by: thecfarm on October 15, 2012, 09:55:44 AM
From what I understand from some of the posters on here,I would not pay much. Most have to haul it away, which cost time,money,than pay a disposal fee at the land fill,more money.