Gypsy killed hard wood

[logman81]

I have been offered about a 150 cords of gypsy killed standing hardwood timber very nice wood. I'm wondering what I should pay per cord for this? I normally buy living timber is this worth more?

[clww]

$20 per cord 

[logman81]

That's pretty much what I was thinking. It's real nice wood, all about six to sixteen inch diameters and seasoned on the stump ready to burn. ;D

[lynches lumber]

What is" gypsy killed " hardwood?

[logman81]

A few years ago we had a infestation of Gypsy moth infestation and wiped out a lot of hard wood timber in the area.

[g_man]

It may not be as solid as it looks especially if the bark is still on it. I would make sure what it was before I figured a price. It will dry quicker but I can't see it being worth more than live wood. I would say less.
I burn a lot of dead wood I clean out of my woods. It is usually inferior to firewood from live trees.

[logman81]

I have looked it over quite well and found that most of the bark has fallen off and the wood is very solid and very dry, almost no decay.

[EricR]

id be carefull with it.  i would cut down a tree and try to burn it.  I have tried to burn dead standing oaks that had lost there bark.  they were solid but were almost petrified and very hard ( kind of hard to explain)and it was very difficult to burn.  It would just smoulder and put out very little heat.  I burned it for about a mounth and it actually caused a chimney fire.  I struggled with it but im sure glad i hadnt tried to sell it.  Maybe they had been dead a lot longer then the stuff your looking at but i would be cautious of it becuase of my experience just my 2 cents

[beenthere]

EricR
Likely your results with standing dead oaks wasn't because they were dead, but likely because the wood was not dry. That would be the only thing to cause the wood to smoulder.  Standing dead shouldn't equate to being dry wood. i.e not enough heat, not enough air, and too much water to heat up.

[Ron Wenrich]

Wood dries mainly out the end of the wood.  You get some surface drying, but that doesn't go all that deep.  If the trees have a layer of punk from the decayed sapwood, then it isn't dry at all.  Its still dead green.

It may look good, but its best to cut and let dry.  The only plus side is you don't have the bark to deal with, as it usually falls off sometime in the process. 

[logman81]

Thanks guys what great info I think I would best to bid on it like it was green timber even though it is standing dead wood and some what dry. Some of the timber does have a slight bit of decay of the sapwood but the rest of it is solid. I would think that once the wood was cut and split that it would take less time to season being that is standing dead. I also noticed that some of the wood has been sheared and piled into pile for skidding wood this wood be dryer than the standing wood?

[Ron Wenrich]

It should be dryer. 

[logman81]

Thats what I thought. ;D I will go ahead and offer him what I normally pay for the green timber then.