Price per mbf locust?

[alanh]

Ill agree that selling them the same as pt is way too cheap. The customer wants custom posts that will last forever without chemicals, he should be willing to pay for it. Theres a sawyer in Mass that specializes in it and he wont let anything go for less than 4.00 bd ft., last I knew he was talking about raising it even more. If you have quality logs, (rare) you might want to put some value on them.

[Dave Shepard]

$4 a foot for locust is nuts, but if he can get it......

If it is the guy I'm thinking of, he lives amongst the Sasquatch's and banjos. :D

[WDH]

Pressure treated 4x4 pine posts are cheap.  I would not sell black locust posts for that price either.  If they don't like the price, they can go buy the cheap pressure treated ones at the Box Store. 

[Briancady413]

Black locust is more like oak than pine, I concede, and is therefore worth more than PT pine. It will probably last longer than PT pine, too. I'll have to predrill every screwhole, of course, whereas with cedar and PT pine I won't.
The arguement that those willing to avoid artificial poisons, and to use locust's natural ones instead, should pay more instead of being rewarded financially for ridding the world of spreading more arsenic, etc., seems as hole-y as swiss cheese to me, though.
Anyway, when you all have finished forming your locust cartel and fixed a price, let me know and I can decide whether to use locust, cedar or PT pine. I'd prefer locust, but I doubt I'll pay $12-18/bdft.

[Dave Shepard]

You are not paying more because you don't want the poison, you are paying more because locust does not grow as fast, straight or as plentiful as syp, nor does it saw as easily. I've never heard of anyone trying to get 12 to 18 a foot for it. I think it's more like a buck and a half, two bucks around here, but then I'm reminded of something my father used to say. "Finnegan's Franks. Ten cents a pound, but we don't have any".  :D

[WV Sawmiller]

tyb525,

   Simple solution to determine the fair price is let the customer obtain the locust logs and go saw them for him at your normal sawing rate on site or at customer location and see what the final cost to the customer ends up being.

   I don't normally saw on shares but I would for decent walnut, cherry or locust. My customers like locust for bridge timbers and poles for pole barns. When I squared my own locust poles I saved what framing lumber I could to use for building shooting houses and such that used to use PT lumber for. I like a 6X6 shooting house so 6' long framing is fine for my purposes.

[Cazzhrdwd]

Black locust is more like oak than pine, I concede, and is therefore worth more than PT pine. It will probably last longer than PT pine, too. I'll have to predrill every screwhole, of course, whereas with cedar and PT pine I won't.
The arguement that those willing to avoid artificial poisons, and to use locust's natural ones instead, should pay more instead of being rewarded financially for ridding the world of spreading more arsenic, etc., seems as hole-y as swiss cheese to me, though.
Anyway, when you all have finished forming your locust cartel and fixed a price, let me know and I can decide whether to use locust, cedar or PT pine. I'd prefer locust, but I doubt I'll pay $12-18/bdft.

Its a fact. This all got started with the green movement. People planting raised bed gardens don't want to have them made out of lumber with chemicals. You're also dealing with a species that is becoming more rare and doesn't grow very well in the first place.

[Seaman]

Locust poles, UNSAWN,  go for $1 a linear foot here, I would not sell sawn for less than $2.50 a BF.
Comparing the price of locust to treated pine is not a fair deal IMHO.
Frank

[alanh]

$4 a foot for locust is nuts, but if he can get it......

If it is the guy I'm thinking of, he lives amongst the Sasquatch's and banjos.
Sounds like him,.. I wasn`t saying he`s right, I wouldnt buy it from him, but he seems to have a market in the "organic, all natural" area he`s in.

[WV Sawmiller]

alanh,

   I mentioned I sold a load of locust posts to a guy over on the coast. In addition to my prices for the posts he hired a trucker to haul them 400 miles. As mentioned by others they are becoming harder to locate. Around here people tend to cut them when 5-6 inches and they make perfect posts but few get big enough to saw. When they do get larger they get a blight of some kind and get punky spots in the trees and woodpeckers and such den in the them.

[Biocmp]

Hi Tyb,

I sent a PM about possibly picking up some BL posts for a garden fence I'm building this spring.  I'm in St. Louis now but I often travel to Evansville.  Send me a PM if you have any extra BL since I haven't heard back from my local sawyer.