You want to have heart wood for lumber. If you have someone with a band saw mill you could get some usable lumber from 8 inches of heartwood. If you are looking to sell
it to a commercial sawmill They would probably want it to square 12 inches, but since walnut is very valuable, they might take a smaller log.

KEH
 
I sold some black walnut a few years ago. I don't know how or where they do it, but the sawyer said that were going to use it make veneer. My logs were typically 18 - 24 inches in diameter.

Tom in TN
 
I would say to make it worth your effort, you'd want about 18" at a minimum, otherwise there will be a lot of sapwood and not a lot of heartwood. Every tree is a little different, but from my experience, at 18", you could have 2-3" of sapwood on each side, so that would leave you with about
12-14" of heartwood.
 
I am getting into hauling logs around MI here on
the weekends sunce I work 4-10's through the
summer, and I see some pretty small 10"
diameter or so, and crooked, look like limbs, at
some of the sawmills. A guy I am working with
says that some of the mills will only buy 4' logs
of Walnut as that is the only species that is
valuable enough to take a 4' log of. Thats what
he says he has been told by some of the timber
buyers. If you call a local sawmill and describe
what you have, they'll tell you the minimum size
needed.

Ross
 
I agree; 10 inches diameter but minimum of 8 ft. 3 in. long everywhere except specialized mills.
 
Your question is more complex than a person would think at first glance.
How small can you mill? People who play around with homeowner bandsaw mills have been known to mill
stuff smaller than I throw in the brush pile when cutting firewood.
How small should you mill? Now thats a different and much more complicated question.
Rule of thumb for a very long time has been 18" chest high. Can you sell smaller? Of course you can.
Should you? Maybe, maybe not. Does the tree have to be cut anyway or are you cutting just to sell or
mill it for your own use? AT some point it is worth more for firewood than saw lumber. Walnut prices go
up and down quickly. At times of high value the answer is of course different than times of low value.

As an example I sold Walnut from my place 20 years ago. County forrester said at my age that I should
leave everything smaller than 18" because the value would grow more in the woods than anywhere else. I
had the "iffy" size trees marked and valued and decided to leave them. Sold again last year and the
gain in value for those trees was incredible.

Sorry for all the lore but you didn't give us much to go on. Timber cutters will cut everything down to
twigs if you let them. Lumber mills are glad to take your small trees for almost nothing if you sell
them but you best to let them grow in the woods.
 
Dusty, Butch nailed it.

I have a walnut I'll remove soon, only 12" BH (breast height). The top was knocked out of it several years ago, last year very few leaves. It's time. Good firewood, but since I mill my own trees, I'll go ahead and make a few boards, with the sapwood left on. Many buyers prefer having some sapwood for contrast, and it is not a defect by industry standards.

The rest of my (undamaged) walnut trees will be left. If I had a buyer ready, I'd mill what was wanted. Major difference in what you're selling, logs or lumber. I don't sell logs, only boards/timbers. That's value-added, significantly increasing my take from the tree.

I don't suffer the normal indignities from loggers, or the normal ugly residue. Next door to me 300 ac of pines are being harvested, not pretty.

I'm guessing you aren't planning to use the tree yourself, or you wouldn't have needed to ask. If it's a yard tree, you may have trouble finding someone to risk their equipment. Too often there is steel inside yard trees.
 
Most of the walnut around here is exported when the prices are high. They also steam it which darkens the sapwood and increases the amount of dark wood you get out of each log. Grade means more then the color unless you are talking white hard maple.
 
My drive way is about 15' from my line fence. Like many line fences there are trees in the fence line, and now in that 15' trees have grown from the fence line trees, and are crowding the drive way. I want to remove those newer trees. I will leave the trees in the fence line. Some of the trees that I plan to cut might make saw logs.

Dusty
 
OK, You might as well try to sell it since your going to cut it down anyway. Buyers are VERY particular about the felling method. Pulled wood around
what would be the hinge on a traditional felling causes problems down the line and trashes the value of the most valuable part of the free. You can
learn how to do it but it is some pretty precise work with a saw and they don't fell on windy days. Few years ago fellers wouldn't even consider a job
like that be these days a lot of Walnut is coming out of fence rows, back yards etc.
 
We are having ours cut off this fall and all the softwood 6 inches
and above is going for saw logs. This is the popple. The maples are
going to the mill and about half are going to the veneer place and
these are bring some real good money
 
Some mills won't take fence row logs due to the potential for hardware like wire and nails for obvious reasons.
 
(quoted from post at 05:14:45 04/14/15) Some mills won't take fence row logs due to the potential for hardware like wire and nails for obvious reasons.

The ones in the fence row I'm not cutting because of that and I like some trees. Just cleaning the ones between the fence and drive way.

Dusty
 

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