Selling black walnut trees

[Nani5150]

I need information on who to contact to find out their worth of Black walnut trees.  I have three large BW trees and have no idea where to start. Two of the have big crotches in them.  I live near Tyler Tx. I have read that the trees and roots are valuable. Any help is so appreciate. These are trees in our pasture. Old ones kinda in a old drainage area. 

[doc henderson]

Welcome to the forum.  I do not have a direct answer, but a few questions.  if you want to post a picture there is info on this forum.  do you know any dimensions of diameter, height, length of straight portions ect.  Texas is a little like Ks where logging and milling are not big business, and no mill on every street corner.  I get walnut here and rarely pay for it.  I have given a hundred bucks or so to the owner just because.  by the time I get all my equipment loeaded and drive to get the tree, it may be half a day.  Often people think they may get 10,000 dollars or so, and I do not think you should you set your sights that high.  there are adds here of companies buying walnut, but they want large quantities.  best of luck and I hope you get a million, but do not hold your breath.  

[doc henderson]

I just did a search of sawmills near tyler and got 11 phone numbers.  price is a local thing.  depends on the market.  good luck

[Southside]

Welcome to the Forum.  From what you describe I would not expect top dollar for your walnut.  Open grown trees produce a lot of limbs, which mean knots in the lumber lowering it's value.  Walnut that grows in wet and open areas also tends to have a high sap wood to heart wood ratio and the value is in the heart wood.  Additionally, the valuable stumps are usually from Clarino Walnut - California - so I am not sure they would bring you much as well.  Not trying to be the Debbie Downer here, just trying to give you an understanding of what the market wants.  Walnut has dropped off the past two months or so and there are many log buyers with quite the inventory in their yards, so unless it is something spectacular their incentive may be reduced to risk buying a pasture grown tree.  This video explains a lot of how the walnut world can be at times. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTgQHWQoatg 

[nativewolf]

I cut and sell hundreds of BW a year, sort of like dealing with them.  That said: just going to second everything that has been said.  Any tree, even walnut, in small quantities, are rarely very valuable.  Walnut prices are down, sawlogs (regular old trees) are taking a price hit.  Trees with low crotch's have less value than normal.  

To wit, I'd market them on craigslist rather than anything else.  They have to be cut down, the tops/branch's removed (i assume), the wood hauled off (a 10' long log requires machinery to load and that means moving equipment -which is going to cost someone hundreds of dollars).  Maybe somebody dealing in small quantities of slabwood would pay a few dollars for them.  I've seen that happen.  Caveat: slab prices are down as well.  

If you post some pics I'd be glad to let you know what I think of the values.  Something beside the tree to provide scale helps.

Good luck

[doc henderson]

@Southside   you clearly have time on your hands.  Maybe you should remove highly valuable black walnut trees.   :D :D :D.  @Nani5150  do you need the tree removed or were you just thinking it was worth something?  you can call the local mills and have them look.  if walnut is hard to find in the area, they may take a chance.  value of walnut after cut, sawed, planed, kiln dried is often over 8 dollars a board foot.  compare that to oak at 1.5 buck a board foot.  If you plan to post and be active, you might add to your profile so we can know your level of experience and ability.  If you are a normal person (unlike @Southside    )  and just had this question, then good luck with your tree.  hopefully the video made the point and did not offend.  this is a common scenario and we all tend to make light of it.  the last walnut I "bought", I spent a day at the guys farm.  a friend of my uncles. drove over an hour with skidsteer and trailer.  this is a hobby for me, I left at 8 am home at 6 pm with a trailer load of walnut stems and limbs.  cleaned up piles of old limbs.  10 gallons of fuel.  broke my glass door to the cat 277c (1600 bucks)  and broke a cylinder mount on my grapple (a day of repairs grinding and welding).  after I left (it was a bad day)  I got a call from my uncle reminding me I forgot to pay the owner, his friend.  I had told him I would see what kind of wood would come from it but would not pay more than 160$.  I gave my uncle 160$ to give to his friend, and so it only cost me 20$ an hour to learn this lesson. I use the wood for hobby projects including plaques to military folks, and give it away to boyscout folks and other hobby guys. best regards, and you are now prepared to visit with your local mills.

[Southside]

Doc -

I have plenty of time on my hand so I did some quick math and I think that lesson cost you more like $179 / hour if you figure in the fuel, window, and if you drove there in a solar powered vehicle with no expense at all, and did the repairs for free, so probably more than that in reality.  :D

Just thought you would appreciate knowing that for sure you did indeed end up with highly valuable black walnut in the end.   :D

[Magicman]

I live near Tyler Tx.

FF Member @E-Tex  is close to you and may be able to assist.

[E-Tex]

Nani5150.... I'm not a log buyer, nor sell lumber, but I do  run a portable sawmill service.  You're welcome to call me anytime and I'll see what I can help you with.

I live in Bullard, office in Flint.  903-894-7628.  My name is Lance. 

[Brad_bb]

Hope to hear more from the original poster.  As another hobby sawyer with a woodmizer, I pay about $1.50/BF by Doyle scale for use-able logs.  These are trees that are already cut down.  I have no problem trimming/bucking the logs, as it give me the choice, but most saywers are not carrying insurance for logging/felling, even though some do drop them sometimes.  Your going to get less if the buyer has to drop them too, as logically, it's more work he as to do and more risk.   Also do you have the ability to load the logs?  A front end loader, or skid steer?  It someone had to bring equipment over, that reduces the pool of potential buyers.  Your potential buyer are small sawmill/hobby bandsaw mills likely. 

I've heard other small sawyers will pay from $1-$2/BF Doyle.  This is in MY area.

There is a good log volume calculator on wood web so you can calculate how many BF are in a log by the Doyle scale.

The value in Walnut is after all the processing has been done.  Each step of processing adds value- cutting, transport, milling, edging, stacking, air drying, kiln drying, edging again, trimming degrade loss, skip planing or planing, re-stacking, marketing, selling.  All that value is not in the log.  The log is only a fraction of the value.

[Texas Ranger]

Lots of hype and myths about walnut, be patient and look around.  Used to be able to sell walnut to the Warsaw Gunstock Co out of Missouri, have not heard anything about them  lately, but, they would come to Texas for walnut, particularly stumps and roots.  Texas walnut in my neck of the woods has wide growth rings and not as valuable as northern walnut with slow growth, you may be in the "between" area.  Probably your best bet is one of the portable sawmills gents in your area. 

In earlier years I would buy walnut from the tie mills around here, have it cut and stored under roof, still have some from 40 years ago, but depleting my stock now.  Had a couple that had wild patterns and some with burls.  Walnut is kinda like panning for gold, you can get lucky.