Log too big for my shop tools ?!?!

[Mike Schwarz]

I don't think my 10" TS or my 14" BS (with riser) would be able to handle this piece of wood :)

[Owen Lawrence]

I wonder where the rest of it is. A lot of toothpicks there, eh?

- Owen -

[Upscale]

What's funny is that the buy it now price is $1,500,000. What will be even funnier is when some idiot pays that for it.

[Todd Fatheree]

Pray tell...what is the value of a log this size and age?

todd

[Charlie Self]

Depends on how many people you can find collecting 16' long chunks of log, I guess, but nowhere is it apt to be a million and a half bucks. The photos are abominations, so it's impossible to tell rmuch about the log, but if he gets an offer over 100 grand, I'll be surprised. In fact, if he gets an offer, I'll be at least slightly surprised.

[Prometheus]

If you had that much money to spend on a hunk o' wood, I'd imagine you could just have your butler find someone to cut it to a more suitable size for you. :)

[Todd Fatheree]

Well, he already has several offers, the highest of which currently stands at $65,100. The Buy It Now price of $1.5 mil is pretty much meaningless. The real question is, what is the reserve price? My point is that I don't think that anyone here knows the true value of a 40,000 lb hunk of sequoia.

todd

[Robatoy]

That's a lot of coffee tables.

ORrrrr.....

An architect with vision together with a team of engineers could create a masterpiece. A million- five, isn't what it used to be. For instance, if Madonna wanted to have it made into a bidet, it'd get sold.

[Robatoy]

I agree. I don't think the bd-ft value has anything to do with it. Carve a masterpiece of a wizard for some Hollywood-type and you'll get your money. That piece of wood needs a publicist.

[mac davis]

Or Bill Gates was in the market for a new paper weight...

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[Patrick Conroy]

"Charlie Self" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I'm calling CitiBank to see if one of my cards has a $1.5MM limit on it. Would hate to make an offer only to have my card max'd out.

[Kevin Craig]

He lists the size as:

21-0 long

21-7 cir. at top

23-2 cir at bottom

So, somebody check my math here. I'm assuming a useable length of 20', and a useable minimum diameter of 6', and I come up with 565 cubic feet of log. At 12 bf per cu. ft., that's 6700 board feet (allowing for waste and kerf).

This sucker is pushing $10/bf already!

Kevin

[Clint]

You're thinking about this all wrong. The log isn't too big for your tools. Your tools are too small for the log. You need to upgrade! Of course, the first upgrade is probably a new shop, like Tom P's...

Clint

> Wow!

[Upscale]

Well, if someone was going to buy it for any of those prices, it would make sense just to spend the money on ready to use stock. The only way it might be worth something is if some project was made using the whole log as a single unit. Totem pole maybe or something else equally exotic.

[Robert Bonomi]

using the 21'7" circumference, I get a diameter of 6.870189 ft. or a radius of 3.435094 ft. PI*r**2 gives 37.459896 sq.ft cross-section.

21' length gives 786.657816 cu. ft. or 9339.893792 bd ft. before any wastage.

Which puts the 'raw' price at bit under under $7/bd ft.

Allowing for the bigger base circumference. one gets over 9800 'raw' bd ft.

[Todd Fatheree]

I worked the total board feet to be roughly 10,000. Admittedly, I don't know the board-feet value of sequoia lumber, but I doubt the purchase could be justified on that basis. Moreso on the fact that this is, AFAIK, a one-of-a-kind item.

todd

[Lobby Dosser]

Particularly if it was cut in Oklahoma where it is being sold! :o)

[Steve Peterson]

The value doesn't scale linearly with dimension; the bigger plank you can get, the more it is worth.

When I was a kid in Oregon, they were still logging first growth, douglas fir and cedars. I used to carry a baritone horn to school while trucks went by carrying one log, a piece about 20' long. Those went to a lumber mill, where planks were cut off. After the core got small (I don't remember how small) the remaining part was sent to a veneer mill where a lathe removed layers for plywood. The final "peeler core" was about 6 inches in diameter. Depending on the mill, those could be sold for firewood or cut up into broomsticks, etc. They finally burned the bark, chips and sawdust to generate steam. It was said they used everything but the smoke. And actually, electrostatic precipitators in the stack collected particulates, which were pressed into charcoal briquets, although it didn't pay to ship those far.

Steve

"and a useable minimum diameter of 6', "

[Kevin Craig]

I factored my waste before cutting, because 21'7" circumference does not yield a usable diameter of 6.8'. Bark, pith, and irregularity of shape... I would bet my figures are more realistic.

Only the smaller figure is useable, since it's the only one that can produce full-length boards. Unless the diameter difference is radical, there's no useable stock between minimum and maximum diameters.

Kevin

[Robert Bonomi]

I wouldn't doubt it.

On 'rational' sized logs, I wouldn't argue that very hard. this one is big enough diameter, that _relatively_ smaller differences can still yield usable stock.

There's an extra 6" in diamter at the big end. Assuming linear taper, you've got an extra 3" at the mid-point. ought to be able to get a fair bunch of 10' 1x2s (if not larger) out of the big-end cut-offs.

One can always reclaim the sawdust for Pres-to logs for the fireplace. *grin*