Anyone here a woodworker or have some experience milling logs? Need some advice.

[oosik]

When we moved down from AK I thought we could live off the profits from selling our pine trees. What a joke!!! Last time I sold timber - I made around $12K - that was my "cut". That was 17 years ago. I had the property selectively logged. If I live to be 100 I might get it logged again. Otherwise - my putting around with my pines is just that - putting around. Its nice to thin my young pine stands and see them grow. It's a worthwhile annual project. It keeps me busy and from going nuts - but not much else. There is certainly little $$$ in the venture. There is money to be made from selling pine, around here. It would take a whole lot more than my 80 acres to make a living off it though.

I'd be eating a lot of dirt if I were relying on money from my pine stands.

 

[dnw64]

When I bought my land, I heard from just about everyone that I know in how much money I could make off of the different trees on my land...

...I figured that when it was all said and done, I would make less then $10 an hour, and that's if nothing broke down, got damaged or created other issues.

I found the same to be true with selling firewood. There just isn't any money in it after you factor in all the time it takes to get it ready to sell.

There are lots of different scenarios.

In 1987 I bought two parcels of land totaling 12 acres for $10,000. I sold the 4 acre one for $3500 and sold the logs off the 8 acre one for $6500. I didn't do a thing other than deposit the check and watch the guys drive in and out of my driveway with money on the back of their truck. Five years later I sold the 8 acres and adjacent house (that I had also bought in 1987) for $40k more than I had in the house and land.

I know lots of people that make a very good living off doing nothing but selling firewood, and others that are loggers, log dealers, etc that also make a good living. Far more than $10/hour I can assure you.

Getting back to the OP, I agree with those that have said you won't know what you have until you cut it up.

However, it's extremely unlikely to be Bird's Eye. First off, BE is most common in Hard Maple. Secondly, BE does not reveal itself until you cut it - the tree looks completely normal.

Lastly, burl does not generally make for good "lumber", i.e. slabs to make stuff like tables. It's usually best to make either small or three dimensional objects like bowls or vases. I have a piece of a burl that was cut perpendicular to the grain which I made into a clock. The center is "regular" end grain with annual rings, and the burl projects around it. Cutting longitudinally (i.e. conventional way to make lumber) you probably will end up "wasting" a bunch of it because of the unevenness of diameter.

 

[forgeblast]

Eddie I 100% agree with" I've found that "people" have all sorts of wild ideas of what something is "worth". On facebook marketplace, people want crazy amounts for yard trees that are black walnut. Because someone says black walnut ohh that is work something.

 

[Diggin It]

IF what the OP has is solid and clean, it MIGHT be worth more to a craftsman, carver or some sort of 'wood artist' than anyone else. They look for the odd stuff so they can make something unique.

But trying to find one of those, well .....

 

[4570Man]

I see adds of people trying to sell a few logs from yard trees for a high price all the time. They’re worthless. Even worse are the people trying to sell a standing tree for a high price, you cut down and haul off all the brush.

 

[dnw64]

Unless I missed something, the OP was not talking about selling the wood, but using it to make something for himself. Market value is a frankenthread.

 

[Jstpssng]

Burls and Bird's Eye are two altogether different defects. Also, look at the tree, not just the deformities; silver maple is a soft wood and with that much dead in the top there's going to be a lot of rot. Still, I agree that he won't know what he's got until it's on the ground. My neighbors once sawed out a couple of burls on their Woodmizer and produced some pretty unique boards.

To give you an idea of how "valuable" burls are, we cut over 300,000 cords of wood per year and the burls are left in the woods or on the landing.

 

[jhasafety1]

If you want it for yourself find someone with a bandsaw mill and haul it to them. Around here they charge two different ways first they charge around .50 a board foot if you take it all, or if a larger tree they take half the wood. I had two trees milled last month and went with 8/4 slabs and some 4/4 slabs. Your tree will have some interesting figure to it, especially in slabs.