Selling logs

Rob Mo

Member
My wood shed is full for this coming winter. I have an oak log 10? long, 24? on the big end & 20? small end. If I were to sell the log to someone that would want to get it sawed, how does a person figure the value to sell the log? I thought about selling it to a local saw mill, but because oak is some readily available, they would only buy it for .15per board foot.
 
Logs are bought on the Doyle scale. You can look up the Doyle scale for board footage. A 8 feet 6 inch log 24 inches in diameter is 200 board feet. So you can do the math x the offer to buy. They also measure the small end not the big end of the diameter.
Timing in the year is also important in worth. Best to cut a log 6 inches bigger than length intended to sell.
.15 cents seems very low in my area for white oak.
I'll add more later,
More questions.
 

Lots of variables in determining the value of a log.
Is it straight and clean with no knots or limb cut offs.
Is it crooked and knotty
Was it cut when the sap was up (spring, summer) or down (late fall, winter)
Is it from a live tree or dead tree.
How long has it been cut
Was it cut out of someones yard or from a wood lot.

A straight clean log from a live tree cut when the saps down would bring around 60 cents per board foot in this area.
It goes down hill from there.
A crooked knotty log cut from a dead tree or one that's been cut for a while is barely worth 15 cents pbf

To the saw miller that 1st log will cut out some high grade flooring or furniture lumber worth up to $1 pbf, father in he'll be looking at low grade flooring or barn lumber if he has the market, this will bring 30-50 cents pbf, in the center of the log is the heart wood that's only good for pallet material worth 15-25 cents pbf, if the log goes bad early he'll try to cut a 7x9 cross tie out of the center that will bring around 45-50 cents pbf.

On the second log he'll see if he can get a cross tie out of the middle and some low grade lumber or pallet lumber off the sides.
If he gives 15 cents pbf for that log and has a 20 cent cost in sawing it up he'll break even.
 
Destroyed has all the right answers. I've been a treeman for 34 years. I've contract climed for many years. Finding the right buyer is key. Each buyer may have a niche market. Historically the sawmill is not the highest paying.
Here veneer Whiteoak pays $5-7 a BF. Tulip Poplar pays well also. Saw logs much less. We have bought many select wood lots. The most we have ever paid is about $100 per tree standing in the woods. Cherry and Black Walnut as mentioned goes to a separate buyer.
There are lots of variables. Loggers are like farmers. The grocery store and Home Depot make the real profits. Price out some Poplar at Home Depot and you will see what I mean, John.
 
To my knowledge the tree was alive after it had fallen. It was
cut in the this past winter. It is straight,no limbs on it, so
knots are slim. This is the remainder of a lot the i had just
got sawed this past weekend. I had true 2x6" sawed out for a
trailer floor. It appears to be red oak in !t eyes. So, what I
have after reading y'all post is a 10' red oak light at will saw
out 160bf +/-. Note that the gentleman that has a bandsaw mill
will cut it for .35bf,which will not be my problem. I am just
looking to sell the log out of the field.
 

Red oak and white oak both have nearly the same value in this area.
What your describing would be a 30-45 cent pbf log at my friends mill providing it has good tight growth rings and minimum mineral spots in the wood.

Honestly you'd be better off to have it sawed into 2 by's or 1" lumber and save it for a future project, if you stack it under roof with strips separating the layers it'll keep for years.
You could also advertise it, some will pay a good for quality rough sawn oak lumber to build hand crafted furniture.
 
I'd be looking up someone around with a small band mill as some of those folks will buy small logs like yours and give you a better price than a big mill that doesn't want to deal with small amounts of logs anyway.
 

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