Market for tape hole maple

[BnSmaple]

Have a new lease I am going to talk to this afternoon and on the phone one question the landowner had was how does tapping affect the value of the tree? I was hoping to beable to tell him of a market for the first section of the butt log but I am unable to find any buyers on a larger scale then your local woodworker. Anyone know Of people buying tap hole butt logs?

[jlemieux]

Oh sure. Everybody that burns firewood

[jmayerl]

I would ask local small mills, seems they always like stuff like that.

[GeneralStark]

I think it is pretty rare for log buyers to be specifically looking for taphole maple logs. It's kind of like spalted maple or other character defects. The local mills here do sell character wood (including taphole) but they don't buy the logs specifically for it. You really don't know what you will get until you saw it. I suspect many of these logs are seen as lower grade but then they sell the milled material at a higher price because now they can get it from furniture makers and such.

I think it is pretty tough to make the case that tapping will improve the value of a maple for timber. But, you certainly can make the case that the trees are more valuable in the long term for tapping than for timber in many cases. If you have a stand of veneer maple that may not be the case, but that is not too common.

[Urban Sugarmaker]

The Cornell Maple farm in Lake Placid sold thousands of board feet of that stuff a few years ago. I might ask them about it. I have some in my living room that I am using to build a coffee table.

[Cedar Eater]

It might depend on what type of tree you're talking. Red maple is almost worthless except as firewood no matter what. I've never heard of anyone paying for milled red maple that would either add or subtract due to tapholes.

[jimsudz]

It might depend on what type of tree you're talking. Red maple is almost worthless except as firewood no matter what. I've never heard of anyone paying for milled red maple that would either add or subtract due to tapholes.

Actually soft maple is paying $1200/m for a prime sawlog thats pretty good . Their used to be a mill in NWPA or SWNY that was looking for tap hole sugar maple.They only would buy if only plastic taps were used,no metal traps. Bob Beals from Filmore Mapply Supply told me this. It was a few years back. I would like to buy some locally in western Ny.

[Cedar Eater]

Actually soft maple is paying $1200/m for a prime sawlog thats pretty good .

How does that compare to prime hard maple sawlogs?

[BnSmaple]

Met with the landowner and we walked the woods about 40 acres of awsome sugar maples that his father managed for a sugar bush 30 years ago average dbh is around 22". He is just happy to get some money out of them and not have to cut them.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Sounds like a win-win for both of you then. Most of the time the value of the wood outweighs any fair price for a lease. Think about.......if you pay $1/tap for 30 years what's that figure to on a per tree basis??? Not much.