LumberJocks Woodworking Forum banner

Lumber for Sale in Mid TN

7K views 15 replies 9 participants last post by  oblowme 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Hey Everybody….

My dad and I bought a bandsaw mill a few years back. We are both woodworkers and we live on a large family farm (700+ acres) with a plentiful supply of hardwoods so it seemed to make sense. We carefully select each tree for milling due to it's maturity, quality of log and also with an emphasis on responsible forest management. We both feel in love with the process of milling lumber. Each time we cut into a log it is like Christmas morning!

We started selling lumber to cover the cost of the mill but I am now making a more earnest effort to make a business out of it. I hope to have a website up and running in the next few months and I hope to make a solar kiln before fall. In the meantime, those of you who are in the area and interested can check out our current inventory below. I welcome any comments regarding our prices. I have had a difficult time pricing our lumber since it fluctuates greatly from region to region, air dried vs. kiln dried, dimension of boards, etc.

Ash: 990 BF, $2-2.25/BF (13"-20" wide and 1" thick and very clear and straight with a few worm holes, some slabs with dark streaks, would make a great table top)

Box Elder: 50 BF, $2/BF (Varying thickness, 3"-5" slabs, blond wood with beautiful red streaks, great for turning, still green)

Cedar: 600 BF, $2-3/BF (1"-2" thick, some slabs available)

Cherry: 1710 BF, $2-4/BF (1"-2" thick, some live edge slabs and some quartered)

Elm: 0 BF, $3/BF (Sold Out)

Hickory: 830 BF, $1.50/BF (Some spalted)

Maple, Sugar: 150 BF, $3/BF (Spalted, 1-1.5" thick book-matched slabs)

Oak, Chinkapin: 570 BF, $1.5/BF

Oak, Red: 80 BF, $1.5/BF (1.75" in thickness)

Oak, White: 910 BF, $1.5/BF (Some boards over 12" wide, #1 Common)

Persimmon: 100BF, $1.5-2/BF (Wormy w/ black streaks)

Poplar: 560 BF, $2.25-2.5/BF (20" wide boards! 1" in thickness)

Pine: 1000 BF, $2/BF (1.125"-1.75" in thickness, some boards over 12" wide)

Sycamore: 630 BF, $3-5/BF (Several 2" live edge slabs, 8'-10' in length and 20 " wide, also 300 BF of quartered lumber)

Walnut: 1925 BF, $1.5-5/BF (Almost all boards are 5.5" wide, some 1"- 1 3/4" slabs 12-28" in width)

Thanks for taking a look. You can reach me at (615.273.4084 or 248.797.5545) if you are interested in seeing the lumber in person.
 
See less See more
#7 ·
@ greg… I will try to post some pics of the persimmon later today. The thickness is 4/4 and 6/4 if I remember correctly. We don't have very much at the moment (under 100BF) but I know of a couple of persimmon trees on the farm that are dead. Look for pics by the end of the day.

@spunwood….Thanks for the plug. The pics look great!

@SSMDad…I am not sure about online orders. I have looked to selling on ebay but it doesn't seem to be a great vehicle for selling lumber unless you have something very unique (like a flamed box elder turning blank). The main reason I want to create a website is to give people a good idea of what we have before they come out to the farm.

@Bertha…It looks like I am about a 7hr drive from you.

@helluvawreck…Thank! I appreciate it!
 
#9 · (Edited by Moderator)
Matt,
It was a pleasure to talk with you yesterday.
Looking forward to meeting you around the first or second week of August. I'll call a few days ahead.
I'm anxious to see your yard and all that pretty wood!
 
#11 ·
@ greg…Here are the pics that I promised. Admittedly this persimmon is not the "prettiest" lumber that we have but it has no shortage of character. We almost waited too long to cut this one. The worms were taking over! But if you are like me then you would rather have something like this over a boring, typical piece of cherry.

Like I mentioned before we also have a couple of standing dead persimmons that I know of. Let me know if you are interested.

Note: I wet the board to show the grain.

Plant Wood Trunk Grass Wall


Brown Wood Trunk Hardwood Tints and shades


Brown Wood Trunk Hardwood Pattern
 

Attachments

#15 ·
@ WoodRMe….. Thanks for your comment.

Do you have an online source for current wholesale MBF prices? If so, could you share?

We are operating as a retailer of lumber so our situation is a little different. We are the sawmill (albeit a small one) and the retailer. There is no wholesale involved.

Any additional comments are greatly appreciated.
 
#16 ·
Matt-
I'm sure there are sources out there somewhere, trouble is most that I know of want money for their info.
I get my #'s from the horse's mouth so to speak- I spent 35 some odd years in the business at the manufacturing end- built, maintained, engineered, managed (among other things) sawmills, kilns, yards etc. I still have allot of contacts in the business that includes a brother of mine so my info is fresh and no BS
A setup like yours is hard to quantify- you are a producer, but your overhead is (as I understand it) next to nothing, true? (I'm not trying to get smart with you). Your log cost is near zero(?) You don't do any 'value added' (surfacing, profiling, kiln drying etc) operations(?) and can only offer AD, PAD or green lumber(?)
Other than the capital that you have tied up in the mill itself, as well as costs involved with maintaining the machine, getting the raw material to the mill, insurance etc your saw bill can not possibly be more than $50-$60/m.
Add up all of your costs and don't forget the intangibles (because someone at some time had to pay for things like that) like what it takes to run your tractor getting the logs out, and if you want to get down to the short rows even what it costs to run your chainsaw. And don't forget to factor in your labor- I know it's just you and your dad messin with it but to get a good handle on things you have to give yourself and anyone else involved a salary.
Take all of these numbers, subtract the money in your logs (not what it takes to cut and haul them, just the value of the logs alone) and divide them by your operating hours, that gives you a cost per hour, take that # and divide by the footage per hour production. In otherwords if it costs you $100/hour to run the mill and you can produce 1000'/hour your saw bill is $100/m.
A real good hardwood mill can maintain a saw bill of @$175/m. 95% of them won't even come close to that. Pine mills are a different story all together- Allot of the big boys are producing a million feet A DAY. It takes around 2000' of lumber to build a typical 1200sqft house, the numbers are incredible. Most of those guys are also pushing dead green lumber through their kilns in as little as 18 hours. For a reference point 8/4 RO takes 6 months to KD.
I hope I have been of some help, I'll answer any questions you might have and if I don't know I'll tell you so.
 
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top