# Value of Taphole Maple lumber



## sprucegum (Dec 6, 2012)

I have recently purchased a parcel of woodland that has a small very old Sugarbush. There are quite a few trees exceeding 36" DBH, most of them are well past there prime. We are planning to continue using them for maple sugar production as long as they live, but there are several that are already dead or nearly so. Most of these are still sound and have one or more good logs. Local log yards will not buy tapped maple butt logs or if they do they will pay a very low price. I have been noticing quite a lot of buzz about taphole lumber and am thinking of having a couple thousand bdf sawed by a friend who has a bandmill, he charges .35/bdf for sawing and will also charge me for sharpening or replacing any bands damaged by sawing old sap spouts and nails in the butt logs.
I will have no problem selling the good lumber from the top logs and will of course use some of it myself does anyone know what a fair price is for the taphole lumber? Also what is the most marketable size . 4/4 5/4 live edge square etc. I have seen taphole lumber advertised as high as $10/bdft but this seems unrealistic to me and is sure a heck of a lot more than I would pay. Any thoughts?


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## mojapitt (Dec 31, 2011)

First, Welcome to LJ's!

Price on this kind of wood has to be regional. I am in South Dakota. I can't get 25% of what they do in say Massachusetts. Do some searching say over a 300 mile radius and try to figure average going Tate. Best I can do. Hope it works very well for you.


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## lightweightladylefty (Mar 27, 2008)

I've never even thought of taphole maple as having any special market so when I read your post, I decided to search the web for information and came up with over 75,000 links. (This posting of yours came up in second place!) There's even one called tapholemaple.com. (I would have done a little investigating but with dial-up, I'd be on here all night!)

If you have a metal detector, you might save yourself some cost in blade repair/replacement and be able to avoid the taps. The cost of broken blades could add up quickly! We've been blessed and never had to pay for one even though lead from hunters has been hit but is soft enough not to cause much damage.

L/W


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## EastLake (Mar 11, 2014)

So, revitalizing an old topic.

Just had some spalted sugar maple boarded out and found tap holes all over. Once I researched what this was, I got giddy.

I am wondering if anyone has ever worked with this, and if so, is it better to leave the holes or fill them with something. And if so, what is appropriate for filling material?


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