How to figure board feet in lumber?

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Hi,

Hubby aske dme to look this up and i haven't the slightest idea where, well... do but it would take me all night to find it. But does anyone know how to figure the board feet in lumber? We need to know this as we have tons of lumber that came with our farm from the old sawmill and found several stacks of walnut lumber. thanks in advance.

Bernice

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), August 15, 2001

Answers

one board feet,, is 1 inch by 12 x 12. Or any combination there of. So a 2 inch, 12 inch x 6 foot, is 12 board foot,, (hope thats right)

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), August 15, 2001.

Yup, a bf is 1x12x12 inches. The value of walnut is also dependant on the quality. If its thick enough, it may be in demand for gun stock.

-- MrC (CuttinWood@home.com), August 15, 2001.

Walnut lumber is worth BIG bucks. If its of a high grade think $4-$5/ board foot. A buddy who has a young tree farm has about 150 walnut trees. He sez when they're about thirty yrs old they can be harvested for lumber and should bring an estimated $10,000/ tree.

-- john (natlivent@pcpros.net), August 15, 2001.

Probably the easiest way is to determine the number of cubic inches in the boards and then divide by 144 to get board feet.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), August 16, 2001.

Somewhat off topic but the forester in me wants to chime in...Walnut *lumber* can go for what's mentioned a few posts up, but walnut on the stump is usually lower, even for the higher quality trees. I've seen several super nice trees over the years that brought in the thousands, but nothing in the ten thousand range. Maybe it's possible but I haven't seen it in ten years in walnut country. The nicest I've seen were on the very best growing sites and probably 70- 90+ years old..no grazing, no fire, no metal in the tree (watch where you put your fences and deer stands!) closed canopy, no limbs for at least 16 feet and a decent local veneer and/or export market. I haven't seen a plantation tree bring top dollar yet but it is possible, especially if the buyer doesn't care about tight growth rings. The 55-65 year range for new plantations rather than 30 would be more realistic.

-- Susan in MO (smtroxel@socket.net), August 16, 2001.


Around here, wild black cherry is bringing twice what walnut does, the lumber market can be very fickle.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), August 16, 2001.

try this width inches timesdepth inches times length feet divided by 12 equals board feet 6 inches times 2inches times 10 feet ft divided by 12 equals 10 board feet

-- George Wilson (cwwhtw@aol.com), August 16, 2001.

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