Apple wood?

[etkoehn]

Does any one know what the price of apple wood is? I have a huge pile of apple wood. mostly in 2' 3' and 4' lengths and some up to about 12"diameter. I played around and cut a small one up on a table saw. Nice looking wood.
I got it for firewood real cheap. The guy said he would have more sometime this year and might just give it to me. Would it be worth sawing up to sell??

[beenthere]

Not sure that it has a price.

Finding a buyer would be first order of business. To the right one, might get a good price for it, but only if they are looking for some apple and can't find it free in firewood.

Would like to give a more positive outlook.  

Might try some for sale on Craigslist.

[Chuck White]

I would think that you should be able to get a good price for it, since it is not very common in lumber.

If I were you, I think I would go ahead and saw it up into 5/4 and sticker it in an out of the way place.

It should price up right along with the better hardwoods.

Being the lengths you described, it would be more valuable to a furniture maker!

[metalspinner]

I know woodturners like a nice piece of apple.  But it is a difficult species of wood to dry without it just blowing apart with checks.  If the log sits around for just a couple of weeks, it will start to split along its length terribly.

[Left Coast Chris]

Be sure to cut all of the heart center out of it.  Important for most hardwoods but especially for apple.  Suggest spraying with timbore if you have had any powder post beatles in the past.

[etkoehn]

Why cut the heart wood out?
So 1 1/4 would be the best thickness?
Don't have much of a problem with bugs in the wood.
These pieces have been sitting around all winter and they seem fine.

[Left Coast Chris]

If you leave the heart center (different than heard wood) the board splits at the heart center.   As an example, if you saw a 6" wide board with the heart center in it then you get a split and you have two 3" pieces which may be unmarketable or too small for the intended use.

[etkoehn]

Do you have a photo or know of one that i could get a visual on how it looks

[5quarter]

Apple wood is hard and very difficult to dry without defect. as with other species, the straightest and clearest logs will have the best chance of not ending up in the burn pile. Grade saw and stay away from the pith, as was mentioned. cut at least 5/4 to allow for shrinkage and movement and put at the bottom of the stack or weight with at least 2 layers of cement block.  Air dry slowly no more than a month or two, then shed dry or you'll ruin the color. Dry until the wettest boards are below 15% mc before acclimating to a heated interior. you could also kiln dry, but I would still air dry for a couple months first. I've never kiln dried apple but I would probably use a schedual similar to white oak.

   Since your logs are so short, load up on the cement blocks when stacking for drying. also, it helps to skip plane the boards between air and shed/kiln drying, just make sure to plane both sides equally. As far as selling it, its hard to say. if you,ve never dried it before your cull will be around 70%. that number will go down as you learn the best ways to dry it. so I suppose in the short run, not worth it...in the long run, definitely.

   Apple is a fantastic cabinet wood and premium boards are very pricey. The trouble is, no matter how much you cut, assume that you will lose roughly 50% to major defects. the up side is that even junk apple lumber is still valuable as a BBQ wood. One of the members (Texas Timbers I think) had a great post on this forum regarding cutting apple for lumber, but I can't seem to find it right now. I've got several burly apple logs to cut myself, plus a massive apple root ball ...I am dreading doing it because for all my effort, I will still wind up losing many boards. Thats about all I know on the subject...I hope it is some help to you. Best of luck with them...post some pictures when you can.

Chet

[etkoehn]

So how whats the best way to cut the pith out?

[5quarter]

level the log on the bunks such that the heart centers on each end are an equal distance up from the bunks. after squaring up the log, begin taking boards off, rotating the best face to the top for each cut. at the end, you should have a 3x3 or 4x4 left over which contains the pith. use that for your bbq.

Chet

[etkoehn]

Thanks for the advice. I might try to cut a few on the table saw and try craigslist and see if i get any interest in them. Then maybe a bandsaw

[rsather]

I've cut up a bunch of apple wood and used it for a variety of things. My main uses for it have been turning, it makes very nice tool handles for chisels and turning tools. One other use to consider is I've seen people looking for quartersawn blanks for making hand planes. It's not a huge market but I've not seen many people able to supply them and the prices have been pretty good. I've also run into some people looking for apple for making new handles for handsaws. I've also sold apple cutoffs for smoking for $1/lb.

As others have said, drying it is the tricky part. I cut mine oversize, seal the ends with Anchorseal and hope for the best. I've been lucky so far.

Ryan