John Pollman
Member
- Messages
- 1,338
- Location
- Rochester Hills, MI
Hi there,
Some of you may recognize this question from another forum a while back but I'll ask it here too and see what happens.
Recently I had a 36" diameter by 80'+ high Ash cut down in my front yard. It just tore me up that I couldn't get it milled into usable lumber. (Money's tight and I didn't have the funds to pay for a mill to come out and do it) So now I've got seven big racks of some very good firewood. At least something good came out of it. But I've still got about two dozen more Ash on the property that will have to come down eventually and some of them are pretty big too. Not quite that large but still big enough to yield some decent lumber when the time comes.
On to the Cherry trees. I've also got a couple of Black Cherry trees in back that are mature and starting to drop limbs and a lot of sticks. I don't believe that they're sick, just mature and reaching the end of their lives. They too are probably approaching 80' tall and one is about 20" diameter and the other about 24" I believe. They're both nice tall and straight trunked trees. They're probably 18-20' to the first crotch and I'm thinking that they should yield some decent lumber when the time comes. Luckily I recently met a neighbor who only lives about a block away and he's a tree trimmer. He's got the knowledge and equipment to drop these trees and get them on the ground and ready for the mill. I'm sure I can work something out with him and get a decent price so that will make it affordable to get these things milled. I've had people tell me that they're "Wild Cherry" and others say that they're "Black Cherry" and one even said that it's a "Choke Cherry". But I doubt that. I think a Choke Cherry is much smaller than these trees. I'm going to try and get a positive identification of the species of these trees.
I guess the question is what variety if Cherry is usually used in furniture and turning work? I'm fairly certain that there is some decent value to these trees and I don't want to see them end up in the fireplace! I'll try to find out soon just which variety they are and let you know. But I see some beautiful projects coming out of these trees if they're the right species.
Thanks for any input!
John
Some of you may recognize this question from another forum a while back but I'll ask it here too and see what happens.
Recently I had a 36" diameter by 80'+ high Ash cut down in my front yard. It just tore me up that I couldn't get it milled into usable lumber. (Money's tight and I didn't have the funds to pay for a mill to come out and do it) So now I've got seven big racks of some very good firewood. At least something good came out of it. But I've still got about two dozen more Ash on the property that will have to come down eventually and some of them are pretty big too. Not quite that large but still big enough to yield some decent lumber when the time comes.
On to the Cherry trees. I've also got a couple of Black Cherry trees in back that are mature and starting to drop limbs and a lot of sticks. I don't believe that they're sick, just mature and reaching the end of their lives. They too are probably approaching 80' tall and one is about 20" diameter and the other about 24" I believe. They're both nice tall and straight trunked trees. They're probably 18-20' to the first crotch and I'm thinking that they should yield some decent lumber when the time comes. Luckily I recently met a neighbor who only lives about a block away and he's a tree trimmer. He's got the knowledge and equipment to drop these trees and get them on the ground and ready for the mill. I'm sure I can work something out with him and get a decent price so that will make it affordable to get these things milled. I've had people tell me that they're "Wild Cherry" and others say that they're "Black Cherry" and one even said that it's a "Choke Cherry". But I doubt that. I think a Choke Cherry is much smaller than these trees. I'm going to try and get a positive identification of the species of these trees.
I guess the question is what variety if Cherry is usually used in furniture and turning work? I'm fairly certain that there is some decent value to these trees and I don't want to see them end up in the fireplace! I'll try to find out soon just which variety they are and let you know. But I see some beautiful projects coming out of these trees if they're the right species.
Thanks for any input!
John