EWP "D" Logs Pricing?

[kantuckid]

I need "D" logs, 6" thick x ~8-9" to raw bark edge which I'll peel by drawknife. 
These go into my cabin build walls and I don't have those trees on my own land in EWP. 
A nearby mill has done them before in various configurations, but FWIW, his other partner retired who built cabins in EWP. So he knows the deal but not sawed them in a couple years, recent market wise, only lumber. Honest guy, longtime sawmill/post mill man. 

 No doubt I'll get a price from him and he & others near me have a price for that species in lumber but I'd like to go in to talk with him better equipped for pricing thoughts for sawing logs he provides vs. I avoid him and simply buy EWP logs locally and saw myself on LT15.

 Ala, my back, my pocket book... :D

How would you price them at your mill for say 1,200 to 1,500 LF of EWP logs, 8,10,12,14,16' lengths, sawed as "D" logs? The mostly 4" & 6" wide offcuts could stay with the mill. 
Thanks for sharing yer brain! ;D
 

[moosehunter]

Around here, finished 8"x8" D logs with double t&g are about $6 per ln ft. 
It doesn't sound like you want them as finished but gives you a reference.
mh

[GAB]

I need "D" logs, 6" thick x ~8-9" to raw bark edge which I'll peel by drawknife.

If I had an LT15 like you say you have I would buy a molder and the proper knives for the desired outside shape and leave the draw knife in the tool shed, even if I had to make three passes.
That e-manual labor you speak of (using a draw knife) I try to avoid.
GAB

[Haleiwa]

Messing around with small logs like that takes a lot of time for the board feet involved.  I probably would charge as much for each D log as I would to saw it into boards.

[kantuckid]

Around here, finished 8"x8" D logs with double t&g are about $6 per ln ft.
It doesn't sound like you want them as finished but gives you a reference.
mh

Thanks for that but truth is, most all the log cabin supply houses around the USA sell KD and various profiles of millwork logs and most any have a retail price list. I see about $4.25 LF up to $8 plus.  Very doubtful I'll go that route given price points.
Molder- nope, I have no interest in buying a molder for a small cabin job. I'm at that age where i get rid of stuff, not buy more. :D

Not hard at all to peel a young EWP? Sort of "slithers off".

I just got done re-calculating my wall logs since I'd bought 4 windows and a door and now know the rough openings I'll have. it comes out to 1,362 LF of logs. I know the exact lengths but that gives an idea of log total. They run from a few 16' to 14', 12', 10' and 8'.

[kantuckid]

Messing around with small logs like that takes a lot of time for the board feet involved.  I probably would charge as much for each D log as I would to saw it into boards.

Not sure I agree with you? Each log must be turned in a proper sawing process and if you can quit sawing that log prior to it becoming "all board lumber" why not stop and sell the cant for the same BF price it would bring were you to keep on sawing boards? Of course there's also the more passes means more blade use thing aside from your own time.
That said I'm just point out realities, not trying to change minds here on how you should charge for your services.

My result:
I have several quotes now from local mills for my "D" logs, sawed at a mill into 6" thickness on bandmills, delivered to me for gasoline and time factors at BF price of the cant they create when sawing my wall logs with the mill keeping the off cuts that come to to them when sawing my "D" logs. All have agreed to charge me for a 6x8" cant in BF.
Prices range from 55 cents to 70 cents BF green, stored on sticks at their mill yard until truckloads are ready. I'm peeling them from delivered stack onto sticks for borate at my place.
I have one guy I have a tentative phone agreement with who's sawed many already for other builders and he owns his own EWP timber too. He says his land has ~ 50k BF of standing EWP in nice sizes. He says he'll mostly be using pretty decent sized logs to produce my wall logs, not just small stuff or top logs. 
The larger mills here (whom I know and live near) will not deviate from production line sawing for little guys like me. Too many off bearers waiting to stack and load stuff plus gang saws doing cants after head saws.  
Those same larger mills in my area pay guys like I'm dealing with (who log, sawmill and farm) ~ 20 cents BF for EWP in the log delivered to their mills.
 

[Don P]

This time of year and then with drying before delivery the bark will be tight, just gearing you up.

[Southside]

Did the math.  Sounds like you will be paying $2.80 / LF for a green cant that you need to peel, treat,  and eat any movement losses / checking on.  Any of these facilities sell seconds of their primary product?  Might be money ahead with that option.  

[kantuckid]

This time of year and then with drying before delivery the bark will be tight, just gearing you up.

Thanks but your kind of preaching to the choir.
 I personally peeled hundreds of logs with my trusty drawknife for the log cabin I am sitting in now. The main thing that's changed is I'm not that sturdy young man I was back then, meaning my backs worn out. The guy has not cut my logs yet. This house has the equivalent of ~ 300+/ 16' logs in it's walls. Lots of peeling compared to my current 20x16' cabin.
Last year I bought a bark peeling gizmo on ebay from a Ukranian guy. It fits up on a chain saw and as with several sold runs a cutterhead using handheld planer blades from a pulley mtd on the saw where the bar fastens. I've never tried it yet but intend to give it a go round to see if I like the look it leaves behind vs. a drawknife.  

[kantuckid]

Did the math.  Sounds like you will be paying $2.80 / LF for a green cant that you need to peel, treat,  and eat any movement losses / checking on.  Any of these facilities sell seconds of their primary product?  Might be money ahead with that option.  

My math: A 6" x 8" x 10' cant equals 40BF.
 At 55 cents a BF that comes to $22 for a ten foot cant divided by 10 equals $2.20 a LF.
The peel part I get pretty well, the warping aspect has not been my experience with pine logs well chosen for the task.  There were at least 3 local log builders/ mills, etc. in the guys area not far from me. The owner operators all aged out and the larger company also had a wood treatment cross tie operation and got in EPA troubles and shut down completely -long story short they're all now gone. 
This guy who would saw my logs used to provide materials to them before they got out of that niche. 
When I built my own home years back the only issue I really had as for losing SYP logs was a couple that gouged by FEL forks and uglified for cabin walls. EWP if sawed from straight trees is very stable in my experience. I have thousands of BF of EWP T&G roof decking and wall paneling, and all the trim in my home all done with EWP. Most was air dried some kilned. 
I have the borate to treat same as the log milling companies do in TN where I've compared too. 
Least price I've seen is several multipliers times my price for milled "D" logs which I don't want to begin with. I just don't like the look of a cant that's ben S4S'ed through a machine-other than those given the "hewed look". There are sellers online for air dried , hand peeled "D" logs, mostly in NE USA and WI. They run about $8 a LF and up plus a large haul bill to my area which happens to be that logging/woods are the major industry.