The biggest oak burr in the country?

[MikeG.]

I was in my local timber merchants this morning, and grabbed this photo of a couple of the biggest oak burrs I have ever seen. I didn't measure them, but they're about 2.1m tall and maybe 1.5m wide. They're open to offers. Anyone fancy doing a bit of hand planing? :lol:

 

[transatlantic]

wait ... your timber merchant has prices on things?

 

[MikeG.]

Not normally. That's a show room full of one-offs, and they are priced up (they weren't 2 weeks ago when I last visited). Nothing else in the (massive) yard is priced. Consider that price an opening of negotiations. They've had these bits for a few months now.

 

[Trevanion]

Didn’t Custard mention at some point that he had some stupidly massive pieces of burr drying out?

I wouldn’t want to deal with the logistics of it, let alone actually using it! Price seems quite reasonable in my mind though!

 

[transatlantic]

There's enough there for at least 20 small bowl blanks :twisted:

 

[MikeG.]

Didn’t Custard mention at some point that he had some stupidly massive pieces of burr drying out?.....

Did he? I've PMd him to see if he is interested in these. He's the one guy here who regularly uses timber like this.

 

[AJB Temple]

Optimistic pricing

I've paid much less than that for a whole tree. (Didn't find huge burrs like that though).

 

[MikeG.]

Seasoned? Planked?

 

[Trevanion]

Optimistic pricing

I don't know, I've worked out the absolute raw material cost for oak in that size would be very roughly about £400, that doesn't take into account the actual size of it which is rather rare to find anything wider than 500mm let alone 1.5m in two-inch thickness commercially, even rarer still to find a piece which is pretty much purely burr.

Did he? I've PMd him to see if he is interested in these. He's the one guy here who regularly uses timber like this.

Had a quick look through his posts, it was 4ft Elm burr he was talking about.

 

[marcros]

I remember that Dodge had an oak tree where the whole thing was burr.

started-a-new-project-today-t58408.html?hilit=burr unfortunately photos lost to photo bucket

 

[AndyT]

I think this tree (in Derbyshire) might yield some quite big lumps one day.

 

[AJB Temple]

Mike

When the big storms occurred couple of decades ago I had a lot of trees blown down on the family farm. We milled it all and stored it. 10 years ago another farmer (Surrey by then) was clearing land and I bought 10 oak trees, 4 walnut, 2 (nearly dead) Elm and a few bits and bobs. I paid up to £350 per tree (really big mature trees) felled and trimmed for the good stuff. I had to hire a mobile sawmill to beam and plank, and we got a hell of lot of firewood as well. The green oak was all used to build a house and a barn. Most of the walnut is still in my storage barn. I hardly ever use walnut. The Elm was highly figured and got used for flooring (moves like crazy though). The rest was very mixed: maple, holly, chestnut. I gave most of that away or swapped for work. A local guy who does hedge laying converted quite a bit into charcoal.

It can be worth buying trees, but the storage / milling / transportation is an issue. Most of my oak is in Warwickshire. For stuff I am doing now, it actually makes more sense for me to sell the very seasoned wood, and import green oak from France. Price differential is 3:1. Transport and loading is a killer, and I don't have sawmill facilities handy here in Kent. I could use a portable set up, but the big issue for me is handling the big stuff. These days I only play about domestically anyway.

AJ

 

[Suffolkboy]

I know where there is an enormous oak burr very similar to that in Cumbria.

I'm keeping my eye on that one.

 

[Suffolkboy]

I know where there is an enormous oak burr very similar to that in Cumbria.

I'm keeping my eye on that one.

Unfortunately it's in a sheltered valley so it ain't going to blow over any time soon.

 

[Sean Hellman]

Very expensive, to say the least. I would never pay that.

 

[Doug71]

Optimistic pricing

Very expensive

You know someone will buy the oak burrs, fill any cracks with blue epoxy resin, screw a hairpin leg on each corner, give them a pretentious name and sell them for double what they paid :roll: