Applewood Prices

FarmingSawyer · January 13, 2015, 08:17:50 PM

Scored some large pieces of apple from a blowdown orchard. I kept every possible useable piece. Some are wide enough for 10" and all are solid. Nothing will make more than 6ft, with the majority in the straight 3-4ft range. Anyone have an idea of what apple is going for milled green vs kilned? I know on special pieces I've sold it for as much as $50/bf....but this stuff is pretty run of the mill....

I'm envisioning kitchen cabinets and furniture...so I might just keep this stash myself, but I also have some customers who would love to include apple in their pieces.

There's a second pile almost as large, of bigger pieces, and a nice 10" x 14ft cherry log.

Chuck White · January 13, 2015, 08:24:11 PM

Well, "Apple" lumber is not very common, so I think if it were mine, the price would likely be double your $.50/bf price

beenthere · January 13, 2015, 08:38:16 PM

FS, you envision a lot more out of that whack of apple than I do.. hope it saws well for you and look forward to seeing what the logs will yield.

POSTON WIDEHEAD · January 13, 2015, 08:43:43 PM

Quote from: Chuck White on January 13, 2015, 08:24:11 PM
Well, "Apple" lumber is not very common, so I think if it were mine, the price would likely be double your $.50/bf price

I think he said 50 DOLLARS bf.

thecfarm · January 13, 2015, 08:51:33 PM

Apple wood for sale.
This wood was harvested in a small town in Maine due to the age of the trees. A heirloom species was planted for each one taken down. Each tree was cut down and loaded on to a trailer,by hand,being pulled by a pair of draft horses to minimize the damage to the logs.This method also helps to protect the other apples trees and the ground in the orchard to help out on next years apple crop. These trees are only harvested once every 10 years to ensure no ever lasting damage to the orchard. The brush was chipped up to be used as smoking wood and compost. All the trees are sawed on a Thomas Bandsaw sawmill that was handbuilt by a small company in Brooks,Maine. All lumber is carefully stacked and air dried to ensure the beauty of the wood will be there for your project.
Get the idea???

5quarter · January 14, 2015, 12:40:04 AM

Farming sawyer...excellent score! Apple is one of my favorite cabinet woods. I no longer live in apple country, but I still manage to scare up some decent logs once in a while. You probably already know this, but saw them all thru-and-thru to get the highest yield. number your boards for bookmatching and sell them in pairs. Be prepared for a lot of waste as you'll lose a lot in the drying process. orchard trees are a lot more difficult to deal with than naturally grown wild apple. If I were you I would keep the lumber for myself. ;D Post some photos of the sawing and the lumber.

SwampDonkey · January 14, 2015, 05:45:35 AM

Up at the farm, all my apple wood was hollow, just mostly sapwood on the main trunk. The old varieties could actually yield some logs if they were sound, no fence nails in them, and didn't grow with a lean. The old varieties were not dwarfed like today's trees. But alas, it was all destined for the bon fires. Tried some seasoned for firewood, wasn't hot like good sugar maple or beech. Some say it burns hot, not what I experienced. But, I digress. ;D

FarmingSawyer · January 14, 2015, 07:18:40 AM

@thecfarm I like your way of thinking......
@swampdonkey In my experience apple is one of the hottest woods, but takes for ever to dry.
@Chuck White It was 50 dollars a board foot, for wide, old, age darkened apple cut from trees which has laid in the weeds for years. Sawed out some nice, but short slabs.

Fortunately these apples were all wild, old varieties for cider and not in any orchard fashion. Because of it's value/rarity and color I'll saw anything that will make 3" boards for rails & stiles, etc. I've also made some crates from apple.....

Some of the pieces in the stack are for spoon carving, some are for round table legs or turning, so they are on the smallish side. I also kept every crotch piece which seemed decent as I have a customer looking for a specific shape of apple crotch to be sawn through the middle to be used as table legs. I've made quite a few live edge cutting boards from apple and if felled in the winter it seems to keep its bark even through heavy use. This one is a 1x8x12" I've been using heavily for the past 2 years. If I had sold it it would have been for $35......

I also use apple regularly for smoking pork....in another life I was a chef and sometimes still teach breaking down hogs in traditional style and dry curing hams, bacon etc. Cider cured ham, smoked over applewood is amazing......

Chuck White · January 14, 2015, 08:08:27 AM

Quote from: FarmingSawyer on January 14, 2015, 07:18:40 AM
@Chuck White It was 50 dollars a board foot, for wide, old, age darkened apple cut from trees which has laid in the weeds for years. Sawed out some nice, but short slabs.

Fortunately these apples were all wild, old varieties for cider and not in any orchard fashion. Because of it's value/rarity and color I'll saw anything that will make 3" boards for rails & stiles, etc. I've also made some crates from apple.....

Some of the pieces in the stack are for spoon carving, some are for round table legs or turning, so they are on the smallish side. I also kept every crotch piece which seemed decent as I have a customer looking for a specific shape of apple crotch to be sawn through the middle to be used as table legs. I've made quite a few live edge cutting boards from apple and if felled in the winter it seems to keep its bark even through heavy use. This one is a 1x8x12" I've been using heavily for the past 2 years. If I had sold it it would have been for $35......

I also use apple regularly for smoking pork....in another life I was a chef and sometimes still teach breaking down hogs in traditional style and dry curing hams, bacon etc. Cider cured ham, smoked over applewood is amazing......

Well, If you can get it, go for it. Apple would have to be a very old tree to get a 6" board out of too!
I just know that Apple lumber is not a common thing, so it should bring quite a lot higher premium than anything from Pine-to-Oak!

tule peak timber · January 14, 2015, 08:21:59 AM

Same idea , different wood, this time Almond. I'm taking a chance next week on a couple truck loads of Almond logs betting the wood will sell in the future. Very short logs , 18 inches in diameter, and we shall see. I cut some last year and the wood is very pretty but there is nothing on the internet about markets so I declined buying. Not sure if it will work out but I'm going to take a chance this time that it will.. Rob

SwampDonkey · January 14, 2015, 09:22:06 AM

I'm pretty sure that apple wood would be nice wood, just need to get a hold of the right piece for your project. Which isn't always as easy as looking in the pile of maple boards. ;D

woodworker9 · January 14, 2015, 05:43:56 PM

If you can get pieces wide and thick enough, saw makers use apple to make saw handles/totes. Also, it's an excellent wood to make hand planes from, but it would need to be quartersawn for that use.

I make planes.......and just finished using the last of some apple I had from a large apple tree on my property. I need to cut down another one....... :D

Jeff

Jemclimber · January 15, 2015, 07:46:23 AM

Nice crate and cutting board FS. Thanks for showing.

FarmingSawyer · January 15, 2015, 04:12:29 PM

Quote from: Jemclimber on January 15, 2015, 07:46:23 AM
Nice crate and cutting board FS. Thanks for showing.

Thanks! I've cut & sold a lot of funky shaped, live edge apple cutting boards out of burls and flares. Even if there some rot or spalting in it, they sell like crazy. I sawed up an old crotch which had been down for years and was full of bug holes and checks. People bought the cutting boards faster than my nicer cherry and maple ones. One woman paid the price and said it was too nice to use for cutting or serving cheese on, she was going to hang it on the wall......

Love when that happens.

Meanwhile, I was on my wood lot today getting some firewood in for next year, and some emergency ash for later this winter...... when I noticed a lot of brush I'd never seen before. I stomped through the snow over there to find 2 huge apples tore out of the ground and down for the count. The tops were busted and they're deep under the canopy so there was no point in leaving them......Took me an hour to cut my way into them, but they're on the landing now! Got 2 full pickup loads of apple logs, now I've just got to get them back, seal the ends, and decide when to mill them, and where I'm going to sticker them in the barn. I've got to find some more weights too.......

FarmingSawyer · January 15, 2015, 05:39:41 PM

Over on another site... @GeneWengert-WoodDoc commented that you shouldn't air dry applewood for more than 45 days....because 4/4 won't get any drier in warm weather..... Should it go into a kiln after that? Or will it really be down enough to be stable? I air-dried my last load of apple in the attic of the barn. Some did get a bit moldy but it planed away. My biggest mistake was milling it too thin and not weighting it down.

Gene also suggest grade sawing due to grain..... I have had slabs warp end to end. But I like the idea of live-sawing to get book matches....

SwampDonkey · January 16, 2015, 10:11:41 AM

It depends on whether the wood is in equilibrium with the air around it. In the SW, it will air dry a lot more than the NE. You'd have to have scrap piece and continually weight the water loss every so often to see if it's 'done' air drying. Unless you have a large floor scale similar to those for weighing potato sacks that you can balance a whole plank on it. Of course the moisture meter is often nice to have. But I was just curious about this magic number of 45 days. ;D I'm sure Gene has tested samples in a location. But pretty hard to generalize I think for the whole nation and change in seasons. According to NOAA records our region averages 70 % RH throughout the year, bit dryer in the coldest months.