Wanted - Value of hardwood trunks in central Texas. Any general rules of thumb appreciated here - for several species. A wood working neighbor has taken interest in my wood-mizer LT-15 (can be seen from the street). His father owns a company that gets contracts to clear land / hardwood forest for highway development here around Austin Texas. After checking out my mill, he is going to bring me in trailer loads of hardwood boles from his fathers contracts - trees that he says would be burned on the site, and are from undeveloped forest and so free of nails and other 'urban' issues. He says he intends to bring mostly black walnut - but possibly also large cedar (actaully Juniperus ashei), bald cypress, red and white oaks, and black cherry.
I have relatively little experience on my new mill having only cut a half dozen boles that nearly maxed out the saws capacity. He is delivering the wood to my site - I cut it. We split the wood in some as yet undecided shares. I have no idea what an equitable trade here is 50/50 split of the rough cut lumber?? He is pushing to get more wood than I...but seems to me to make it significantly harder to divide if not equal parts. With this much wood coming in, and no defined purpose yet known for the lumber- what is the best cut thickness to make - simply slab it at
8/4 (2 inch?) slabs - or 4/4?? What is the crude value (per ft) of the various species I mentioned above if cut into 2 inch slabs and dried (stacked / stickered on large cement tennis court and covered in tarps) I have done much reading about milling wood, but little actual experience except to know i'st a lot more work than others realize that never did it...I want to not waste my first few loads and attempts at black walnut. Any info greatly appreciated here.