Washington State Maple

[Outerspace]

Hey everybody, had a couple of questions.

I recently picked up a piece of property with loads of maple on it and near it.  Some of it is dead and down on the ground.  The previous owner was about to cut it up as firewood.  I've built a couple of Warmoth guitars and so know a little about figured and spalt maple, but have no dealings with it.

My questions are:

1) If I do have spalt or figured maple, who do I sell it to in the King/Pierce area?  Is there a mill or anything that buys this stuff?  BTW I would be more than happy to travel outside the county, but that's just where I am.  I've googled and made half a dozen phone calls and haven't found anything.  If I do have some how do I sell it/who do I sell it to?

2) How does this market work?  Do I get bids on prices or quality?  Do I have to show it to multiple buyers in order to get a fair price?

Along these lines.  There is one tree with some removed bark, looks naturally removed, that appears to have some figuring.  I'm not going to touch anything until I find out more.

Any help would be great.

 

[SkuttleFunk]

take a few images of the outer bark such that there is good resolution to clearly see the pattern. an experienced sawyer will be able to read the bark and recognize which trees have potential for good figuring

if you're able, post a couple images here and we can give you a few pointers on how to improve your images to gain the attention of local sawyers

and as reference - if you have Maples with this kind of features, I'm sure you'll quickly discover that you have the dedicated interest of local sawyers

in contrast, I believe it's obvious that this Maple tree has significantly less potential for extreme figuring

all the best,

R

 

[Outerspace]

Thanks for the reply, it may take me a few days to get out there and snap a few.

In the meantime, there are 2 or 3 cords of dead maple, very hard, as hard as a live tree that have been down for years.  I am interested in knowing who would buy this stuff if it's worth anything.  Of course I would keep a couple of pieces for a tele project, spalt top teles are pretty much the coolest tele you can do.

 

[Alfang]

I might be interested, where abouts in Wa are you? I'm in Portland area

 

[AGWAN]

he said the King/Pierce area.

I have no idea what that means.

 

[lafromla1]

spalt top teles are pretty much the coolest tele you can do.

ahem...I beg to differ......but they are pretty cool.

 

[SkuttleFunk]

I am interested in knowing who would buy this stuff if it's worth anything. 

that depends entirely on what you have - hence the images. if all you have is ordinary straight grained western Maple (even if it has some spalting), you'll be hard pressed to get anybody's attention. if on the other hand you have wood showing the signs of high figure content, you're now in the place of sharing these images with sawyers so they can give you a bid.

do recognize that the price a sawyer will offer you may seem quite low compared to a high figured top set, but the sawayer is taking risk that the wood they're obtaining is of a figure quality they'd be able to sell at a profit after they spend the labor to retrieve it, cut it, dry it, re-saw it, sand it, and market it. also recognize that much of what they obtain will be unusable, so this is also accounted for in their quote

all the best,

R

 

[bagman67]

he said the King/Pierce area.

I have no idea what that means.

King County/Pierce County - the greater Seattle metro and surrounding rural areas.

 

[mbergthold]

I might be interested, where abouts in Wa are you? I'm in Portland area

We were told we have at least 1 figured maple on our 5 acre treed lot in Mapleridge Estates, could be more but we dont know how to identify them.  Previous owners sold one. We plan to log in spring 2019. We're just outside of Woodland WA, would you be interested in coming out?

 

[stratamania]

I might be interested, where abouts in Wa are you? I'm in Portland area

We were told we have at least 1 figured maple on our 5 acre treed lot in Mapleridge Estates, could be more but we dont know how to identify them.  Previous owners sold one. We plan to log in spring 2019. We're just outside of Woodland WA, would you be interested in coming out?

Alfang was last on the forum in 2016. Try sending him a Personal Message as it may send him an e-mail alert.

 

[Mr. Neutron]

Bagman nailed it; it's near Seattle (Tacoma area, maybe?).

Your maples look like what I have on my property near Boring, OR.

With the wind and storms we've had blowing through this past week, I lost another top out of an old one. Sigh. Firewood for Jimmie, I guess......

I had one about 2' in diameter I cut down, with some truly gnarly knots a bit twisty grain to it. I didn't wanna split it (laziness reared it's ugly head) so it became something for me to ride my Trials bike on.....

Added in EDIT: Oooppss! Sorry! Didn't realize how old this was, or the fact that the OP hasn't posted in awhile......

 

[spe111]

Added in EDIT: Oooppss! Sorry! Didn't realize how old this was, or the fact that the OP hasn't posted in awhile......

They should come back and let us know what happened to the trees.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Puyallup is right next to Tacoma.