We purchase English Walnut trees for the production of fine quality timber for furniture making and musical insruments

We Buy English Walnut (Juglans regia)

From time to time we are contacted by people wishing to sell us their prized walnut tree which may have died or been blown over in a recent storm. In the case of walnut this forms one of our best avenues in obtaining some fine specimens, and at Prime Timber we buy English Walnut whenever it is available subject to quality. The following explains what the process of selling us your English Walnut tree involves. We also purchase other native timber mainly in larger quantities but will always consider purchasing small quantities if it is of exceptional quality.
We would say at this point that the overall height of the tree plays absolutely no role at all as to if it’s of any value, the key points are the girth/diameter, unless the girth is over 80″ at chest height it is not going to have enough timber in it to warranty a visit.

How much is it my Walnut tree worth?

The answer to this can not be given without a site visit and us inspecting the log, sometimes if accurate measurements and detailed photos are provided we can give guide figures but that is all.
All logs are purchased on what is termed a hopus measure which determines how much timber it may yield on a good day, but we also have to take into consideration the cost of transporting it away from the site. If the logs are only small the cost of uplifting & transporting are in excess of what it may be worth when dry in to 3 years time. Prior to a site visit we would ask you to provide a photo if possible with something placed alongside for scale, more importantly some measurements as detailed to the right. Other questions which we will ask are, what is the access like, what is the ground like where it stands, sandy, chalk, agricultural, wet etc.

Measuring your English Walnut tree

We will ask for the following measurements to help assess if the log warrants us visiting you. The Girth (circumference at chest height); or alternatively DBH (diameter at breast height), as a very rough guide, can you place your arms around the tree and touch your fingers together? We will also ask for the ‘first length’, this relates to the height from the flare of the root plate to the first bough, branch or large limb. Often people will tell me it’s x in diameter and send me a picture of a tape measure stretched across the widest point of the flared end of the felling cut. For means of estimating a volume it needs to be taken at roughly waist/chest height. If sending images please take a look at the news section where you will see some samples of logs we deem of a planking size and most importantly the shots of the fresh cut ends. This should be done within a few hours of cutting whilst which allows us to better see the colour.

Do I need to fell my tree?

If the log is still standing i would always advise contacting us before you have it removed, i have seen a number of logs damaged through poor removal, we can advise on best practice. We are often asked “will you fell the log” the simple answer is, no we dont. As with any log until it is actually on the ground you cannot be sure of what you are going to get. Sometimes what can seem to be a very promising log can end up as just being suitable for firewood so it would make no sense to us as a business to cover the costs of felling in the hope of finding one which is saleable. We do however sometimes get involved in clearing of windblown logs and offset costs against any value in the log itself.

What next?

Please get in touch by emailing or phoning on the details below. Following on from our first contact if the log warranties a visit we will make a appointment to visit you and make a appraisal of the log, If it is already down then we can make a evaluation based on what we can see or if standing we do this by boring and taking a small core sample to examine the colour and the size of the sap ring. At this time we would make a offer to you if it meets our needs.

Sell your tree today

Please do not let all these questions put you of contacting us. We are always happy to receive calls from owners and discuss the options open to them, very few sellers are able to tell us much about their logs other than the dimensions which is one of the most important aspects.

So if you think your walnut tree may be of interest to us please do not hesitate to contact us via email to primetimber1@gmail.com with as much information as you can, or by phoning us on 07711278745 but please keep in mind we cannot give you a value over the phone and without the information as requested above there we cannot answer your questions as to if there is any value to the log.