In my late mother-in-laws garden is an English walnut tree - 4 foot in diameter with a straight trunk probaly ten feet high till you get branches. The property is likely to be sold to pay death duties, but before it goes thinking of felling the tree or digging it up and then using the timber for furniture or even better a few gunstocks.
Any advice gratefully recieved on how to fell such a tree and then seasoning the timber.
I sold 120 black walnuts (B/W) out of my woods on the IL/WI state-line about 6 years ago, some were veneer quality, most were not. I measured and graded all my trees myself, after instruction by a friend and former client who is in the saw-mill and custom-finished lumber, flooring, and trim business. I came within 5% (under) the timber buyer's bid--it took me two weeks; it took him 5 hours.
In order for a B/W to be marketable it should be at least 16 inches in diameter at shoulder height, excluding the bark, or about a nominal 18-inch diameter (which is hard to measure), or a tape-measured circumference of about 56 inches (divided by pi 3.1416 = 18-inches dia.).
First question: Do you mean
diameter or
circumference in your 48-inch ("4 foot") trunk measurement?
(1) A B/W 4-foot "thick" (diameter) is extremely large and would be about 150 inches measured around with a tape measure (circumference). If this tree is veneer quality, and it could be with the 10-foot run to the first branches, there could be value...
(2) If you mean that the B/W tree is 4 foot around, measured with a tape, the tree would be about 15-inches thick (diameter), and not worth the effort, veneer or not. In this context it is an ornamental and could, by its presence, enhance the value of the property, if you don't mind the messy walnut-turds dropped on the lawn in the fall, which become tar-like with age.
If your tree is as you said--4-foot in diameter--with a measured circumference of about 150 inches, you still need to consider its value as an ornamental that may or may not enhance the property. Assuming, as you say, a 10-foot run to the first branches, this still doesn't insure veneer quality, as bumps and bruises (called "smiley faces") can disqualify and leave you with strictly board-foot prices. As I recall, my biggest tree was about 56-inches diameter and was valued at less than $2,000.
Valuable veneer-tree extractions can involve digging down to get a longer first log, but there would be no value for gun stocks. Google Black Walnut for some indication of prices. Years ago there was a stately B/W on a farmstead in Ohio (as I recall) that sold at auction for $75,000 (when that was not chump change), as reported in the
WSJ (but I couldn't find it with slight Google effort).
Punch line: Black walnut lumber by the board foot is not worth the effort and potential impact on residential valuation. A 4-foot diameter (thick) B/W that qualifies as veneer to the 10-foot first branches is still no bell ringer in my slightly educated opinion, but possibly worth pursuing further. As to gun stocks: I think not. Taking down a 4-foot diameter tree in a residential garden presents its own special problems. There are people in the business who can give you a "go" or "no-go" price, but based on no special info in re: great valuation, ready purchaser, cash on the barrel-head up front, insured, bonded, licensed, and disposition of the negative-value portion (tops, branches, stump), I'd say the odds are against... EDM
