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I'm not much on sawing special items. But we have two active customers that make and resale primitive furniture and other novel wood works.
I slabbed down a cedar log for one a couple of weeks back. The other customer came to me and wanted some slabs to build into a headboard. We picked out one of my logs that he felt was big enough and rough enough. It was a big log but it had deep seams on the butt end and woodpeckers had made a few holes in it. It was only there because I figured it was junk.
Anyway, I agreed to slab it down for him and this morning I put it on the mill. I was surprised to find that it was not eaten up by bugs and the seams were pretty solid.
The middle two flitches managed to miss the seams and came out solid. They are 1-1/2" thick, 20" at the narrowest place and 8' long.
I'm thinking of calling my "other" customer and have him take a look at these two slabs first. His business is well established and has money. The customer that wants them is operating on a shoe string. He comes out and raids our slab pile for pieces and buys only a little at a time.
I can smell it :D nice boards for sure.
I just sold two bundles of cedar slabs for siding in a horse stable and they looked nothing like your slabs. Yours are much prettier. :D
Those look very nice. I agree on the customer choice. Sometimes you gotta scratch where you itch. :)
Nice. Sure would like to get some cedar logs like that up here, I could sell the heck out of um.
I'm at a loss as to charge for such unique items.
The ones we sold a couple of weeks ago we approximated the board feet in each flitch and multiplied by our cedar price. We gave away the live edge and side slabs. The customer made no complaint about the bill.
I told this customer the same. But I've decided to hold out these two slabs.
All of our 12" goes for $2.50 per board foot and that is in quantity. We are selling about 100 mantles of 4" by 11" and wider for that.
So I am thinking $60 and up each for your slabs.
It's not like they grow on trees like money. :D :D
Quote from: Cedarman on June 06, 2012, 05:59:53 PM
All of our 12" goes for $2.50 per board foot and that is in quantity. We are selling about 100 mantles of 4" by 11" and wider for that.
So I am thinking $60 and up each for your slabs.
It's not like they grow on trees like money. :D :D
Funny but true. bg
Quote from: SAWMILL BUDDY on June 06, 2012, 04:51:56 PM
Nice. Sure would like to get some cedar logs like that up here, I could sell the heck out of um.
Sure would like some of your Cedar in WV too. All I have is Red Oak, White Oak, Poplar, Hemlock, White Pine, Cucumber, Maple (hard and soft), Sourwood, Lin, Ash, Locust, Cherry, .. but no Cedar. :-\
The slabs are stunning beautiful, I would
Unable to let those go. I am really liking your
Saw mill set up, looks great.
Kimball
Yep, prices slabs is challenging. Most folks find out quick it is better to bring the log to the mill and pay $100/hr for the mill time than to purchase the slab from the sawyer.
I have a buddy who does the rustic furniture trade and he gladly pays the fee. He take a 2' long slab that I would have turned into firewood and tells me he will make a $150 table out of it. As furniture one slab has nearly a thousand dollar value.
Quote from: bugdust on June 06, 2012, 09:49:32 PM
Quote from: SAWMILL BUDDY on June 06, 2012, 04:51:56 PM
Nice. Sure would like to get some cedar logs like that up here, I could sell the heck out of um.
Sure would like some of your Cedar in WV too. All I have is Red Oak, White Oak, Poplar, Hemlock, White Pine, Cucumber, Maple (hard and soft), Sourwood, Lin, Ash, Locust, Cherry, .. but no Cedar. :-\
Search your local graveyards. The older ones will have old and/or dead cedars (no pun intended). The township trustee or cemetery care taker will be happy to clear out the dreary looking stuff. They like having flowers & bright green trees with color. Dead cedars look scary. Cemetery cedars are usually really big, too......and full of tramp metal.
SOLD!
I made a delivery close to the customer I though may be interest in the slabs. After the obligatory chat, I pulled out my cell phone and showed him what I had. I shot him a price for both and ask if he wanted to come look at them. He said, "I don't need to. I'll take'm."
I probably could have ask for twice as much but I want to get established with him.
Looks like you'll be sawing more cedar now. Good job. 8)
Good for you. Another niche maybe. ;)
We actually saw a lot of cedar. Mostly from customer's logs. Mostly 6x6 and 1" lumber.
While I got a good per board foot price, considering time involved, I'd made more money sawing something else.
This won't be a major shift in our business. If anything, it's a distraction.
It's good that I like being distracted. Cedar is completely different than other woods. Markets are much different too.
You can saw all day and it seems like your pile isn't all that high.
Special boards need that special price. People are prouder when they pay top dollar for a board.
I don't really like sawing cedar for just that reason. The most I have ever sawed in a day is about 1600 bf and that was a long 9 hour day with little stopping. I have thought about sawing 2 logs at once to speed it up but I never have as it seems like there is too much of a chance to make a mistake. I charge a flat rate per bf but have thought about adding 10 cents when cutting cedar.
When we buy cedar logs, we want them to be logs - at least 100" long and 10" diameter or larger on small end. Most of our cedar market is 6x6 posts that go into high-end homes so have to be near perfect.
There is still a lot of good cedar in our area. Unfortunately, it's in remote areas. Most of the cedar offered to us is pasture an fence row growth.
What do you pay for logs 100 feet by 10 inch. I paid
My neighbor $200 for two very similar trees.
Kimball
Since I only saw customer's logs when I saw ERC, it is hourly rate only.
The margins for sawing cedar are much higher than for most other woods.
A 9" log will square out a 6x6. An 8' log costs $9.60. The 6x6 sells for $28.80
If you saw 1600 feet a day assuming only 1200 feet is good enough to sell for $1.20 per foot , that is $1440 gross, not counting the 400 feet of lower grade.
You have $640 in log costs. Leaves $800 or about $90 per hour and you still have lumber left and $100 worth of slabs.
It is all about the margin between what you have in the log and what you get out of the log that is important. Comparing the number of feet sawed per day of cedar versus hardwood is unproductive thinking.
MM sawing by the hour lets him make what ever profit he deems necessary.
Moral of the story is don't saw cedar by the foot.