Is this pine log worth anything?

[N80]

About ten years ago a fairly large pine that stood beside a creek on my property got blown over. It leaned across the creek and never came down on the ground. It lived for about another six month and then died. I was poking around it a while back with an axe and noticed that even way up that the wood was fat. (Around here we call old pine that is saturated with resin/sap 'fat lighter'. It smells like raw turpentine and you can light it with a match. We use it as kindling and it is very effective.)

The bottom of the tree is in the creek bed, which is dry right now, and it is propped up on the other creek bank with maybe 35 feet sticking up in the air. The bottom part is covered in wet sand and has been for ten years.

Anyway, my supply of fat lighter has dried up so this weekend I got my chainsaw out and cut the log off where it came up out of the creek. This put that 35 feet of it on the ground. I started sawing it into lengths that I could get in my tractor bucket. These higher up sections will make okay but not great fat lighter.

But then I noticed how nice the wood looked and wondered if I were making a mistake cutting it all up for kindling.....which would last a lifetime. So I stopped.

The piece in the creek is 25 feet long and at the base is easily 2 feet in diameter. There is a picture of that piece below. There is also a picture of where I made the first cut, 25 feet from the base. It is 17 inches in diameter there.

So what I have left is a 25 foot section from the base, a 12 foot section from that cut up, and then several 5 foots sections.

So my question is: Is this wood worth anything other than as kindling? And by 'worth' I don't necessarily mean big money or anything but would a wood/log salvage outfit be interested in it? If not, would it be worth dragging it out and taking it to a local saw mill? My 45hp tractor will not be enough to get it up the hill out of the creek bottom but my neighbor has a 120hp JD that could do it.

Thanks for any input.

 

[oosik]

Around here, getting a single pine log to a saw mill would not be worth it. If I still burned wood - it would become firewood.

 

[Budweiser John]

Looks like Southern Yellow Pine and based on the growth ring spacing, it must have been a very happy tree in it’s day.
You could probably yield a couple hundred board feet of lumber. In my neck of the woods, guys with band mills charge about .40 cents a board foot for sawing if you deliver the logs to the mill site. If you have a trailer and the equipment with enough moxie to handle the logs (and sawn lumber) the venture might be worth while.
On the other hand, given the ridiculous price being charged for a little bundle of “fat wood kindling”, if yoy’ve Nothing better to do, a hatchet, stump, and may be an adult beverage migh provide some passive income.
B. John

 

[s219]

With growth rings that far apart it's probably not especially desirable wood. I have milled a few pines from my property, and when they have interesting grain I save the boards for future projects, but really there is nothing special about the wood. Problem with pine for a homeowner is that it will cost more to process it than the value as lumber or firewood. You need a large scale operation for pulp or lumber to get something out of pine, and as firewood the BTUs are too low. I still try to use whatever pines I cut down, but I am fully aware it's not a good use of my time/money.

I have often wondered if fatwood pine is more rot resistant. When we built our home, I used pine logs for gate posts, not caring if they'd rot out eventually, since I didn't plan for the gate to be permanent (just to keep out thieves while building). Well, the posts are now 7 years old (and gate still there) and zero sign of rot at soil level where it normally starts. The posts were very sappy and smelled like fatwood.

I occasionally come across an old pine stump on my property that has the turpentine smell, and will pull it and put aside for future use. When I have time, I chip the stump into little pieces. I have about three 5-gallon pails of fatwood chunks right now.

 

[4570Man]

10 years down is way past it’s prime. It’s not worth anything here anyway. I’d continue with the lifetime supply of kindling.

 

[oosik]

Everybody around here burns pine or a little further north perhaps some tamarack. Its not got the btu's or the burning longevity but its an easy wood to convert into firewood. AND its just about all we have. I've burned an old apple tree - didn't notice that it was much better than pine.

However, I got three old black locust trees from an old homestead down the road. Thank goodness I had a hydraulic splitter for that stuff. When it had aged a year I burned it. Now, THAT, was some good firewood. Burned hot & lasted a long time.

But that's three trees in 36 years out here.

 

[EddieWalker]

There was a lady back in the 90's that created a web page as a sort of a joke saying that she was selling tumbleweeds. Then people started buying them from her and it turned into a profitable business. She had a good sense of humor and she was very creative, so that added to it. I just did a google search and found multiple sites selling tumbleweeds!! • Tumbleweeds for Sale, Buy Tumbleweeds, Purchase Tumbleweeds

Anyway, there are people that can sell ice to Eskimo's, so anything is possible. I have a variety tree types on my land, and over the years I've learned that everyone thinks there is a lot of value in it, but nobody has any knowledge of how to actually make money on it. The people that I know who have tried to sell timber, or specialty logs have all lost money after wasting a lot of time. I've had guys want to cut up my wood that I've cleared to sell for firewood, and even when I gave them the wood for free to cut down on the time it would take me to get rid of it in my burn pile, they lost money and I still had to clean up their mess when they gave up. I tried it with pines too. Dozens and dozens of them laying on the ground, perfectly straight. Nobody would show up to haul them off except one guy who was wanted them to build a log house. He spent several weeks cutting off the stumps and branches, loading them onto his trailer and then hauling them to his place. But the work was too time consuming and he figured out that he could go to work, make money and buy the logs dried and delivered to his property for less then what he was losing by not working. I tried selling timber for railroad ties, but it was very time consuming without enough money to make it worthwhile. The number of hours I spent doing it, I could have made a lot more just going to work.

As for your log, I agree with s219 and the width of those growth rings, in saying it's not worth anything. You can buy lumber at the box store already to go for less then what it would take to make it into 2x's

 

[N80]

There is always talk around here about "heart pine" floors. We had them in our previous house. They came from beams out of an old mill. My main thought was that this log might be good for that. Someone mentioned that this tree was past its prime since it had been down for 10 years. This is not the case. There is less than an inch of soft wood around the outside in some areas but other than that this wood is as hard as concrete. Much harder than oak. I'm assuming the reason is because the lower half was buried in wet sand and/or under water most of the time in the creek while the other half was in the air. And again, the tree dies slowly so the sap drew downward. That is what makes pine 'fat'.

As for durability, basic yellow pine tends to rot away pretty fast around here. But heart pine and fat pine essentially do not rot at all. True fat lighter is what you get when a standing pine dies. The heart of those stumps remain for decades if not centuries. If the grain is not perfectly straight, hitting it with a hatchet is like hitting a rock.

There are numerous guys with portable saw mills in the area. You can carry to them or they will come to you. I've got a 19' flatbed trailer rated at 9000# but I don't own anything that would get that 25' section onto the trailer and I have no idea how much it weighs. My little tractor can only barely lift the upper end a few inches. Again, my neighbor has a large JD ag tractor with loader but not sure what kind of lift capacity it has.

I'm just wondering if a guy with a portable mill can accommodate a log over 2' in diameter and if they can, would they be willing to run their bandsaw blade through this stuff. As I mentioned, it is hard. I used two small (18" and 20") Stihl chainsaws to make the 4 or 5 cuts. They were sharp at the start and dull when I got done.

As for processing (planing, etc) there is a large commercial mill a few hours away. When we built our cabin....on a tight budget...I bought a load of typical young pine boards from a guy with a portable mill and carried it to this commercial mill where it was planed and tongue-and-grooved. The total cost was a little over a dollar a square foot. I sanded and stained it myself. They have held up very well and look fine after 15 years. Nothing fancy of course but it still worked for cheap.

As for using pine as firewood, that is not common around here. It burns too fast, pops a lot and will creosote your chimney. We use it primarily as kindling with fat lighter being the most desirable.

Anyway, thanks for the replies. Just the few 5' logs I cut will keep me in good supply of kindling for a long time even if I share it with my daughter and her husband who heat their house entirely with wood. As I mentioned, the stuff higher up on the tree is not prime fat lighter but it is descent. Prime fat lighter will literally be running in amber-like rosin which lights up like kerosene.

I'll think on this a while. It will take an effort and a neighbors help to get the big length out in one piece and probably not worth the trouble. I could certainly make another cut and still get 12' boards though.

 

[Deere Dude]

I would cut it in half because a 25' log would be to big to handle unless it was from a specialty tree. You should be able to muscle it around then.

 

[PILOON]

At my mother's a 24" diam white pine was blown over and when it fell it leaned on large rocks thus never touching the soil.
Fast fwd 5-6 years I hired a mobile saw mill and reaped many very usable board feet.
The mill cost $250. to process that tree resulting in very cheap nice wood.
We made many pieces of furniture from our tree.
LOL, I still have a few lengths left for future projects.