How to value timber?

Good quality timber comes from forest grown trees.

They go straight up, and side branches either dying off at an early age, or if managed, cut off before they can cause any problems, that way you get a good clear trunk, (bole I think they call it),.
Lone trees often have large branches low down, so the timber has large changes in direction around the twisted grain areas, which causes unstable timber.

Some people exploit this property to "effect", it can be useful in certain situations, ie. looking for something rustic, or turning, but not in everyday timber for building etc.

 

burn it by all means.
I thought you was thinking of it as a timber for use other than that.

 

I think what Pete is saying is, that the trunk may have had branches lower down, which will give the truck more knots in the tree which will be reflected in the price you are payed

Also i think, but not sure, that timber/trees etc is tax free, i could be wrong but check it out, you don't what to paid tax if you don't have to

 

Yes I realised what Pete was meaning re branches. Perhaps tho I didn't understand his meaning of quality and what I mean by quality in a tree as I am not a timber merchant! The 12 odd metres of tree I am I talking about is BEFORE any branches so completely knot free and poker straight, that's why I thought it was perhaps a waste to just burn it. If the tree 's trunk had been bent or had low down branches we'd have already started the long task of logging it! There are always limitations to "talking" through forums as I am not a complete beginner when it comes to knowledge of trees/timber/burn quality of wood as a fuel but that said I have no knowledge as to whether the tree would be of interest to a timber merchant and if so how much it's worth.
I have already had experience of nearly being "done" over trees and their value. Some years back a Scottish electricity producer requested to severely lop 7 of our huge Poplars. I have no love of Poplar far less after they would have been severely lopped so said we'd give permission to have the trees felled. After some incredible amounts oh hoo haa/road shut etc they eventually felled the trees.Part of the agreement between the parties was that we wanted all the timber either logged or shredded up as we would burn the timber (not great but better than nowt)and use the shredded material as compost eventually.
WELL I made the mistake of not being present for the whole day that the lumber jacks etc were taking the trees down. I went out and came back home to discover ALL the massive trunks of the trees had disappeared. We had a massive pile of shreddings and a log pile which would have done us for about 3 weeks and that was it. The main representative of the power company even had the nerve to try and tell me the pile of logs was all that had been produced from 7 massive trees. I may be many things but I did not come up The Clyde on a banana boat!
Thought for a while about what might have happened and decided to phone the closest saw mill to here about 8 miles away. BINGO they had been up and collected the huge trunks and paid the people on site £650 in cash ( only divulged this after I threatened the police and muttered dealing in stolen goods)
To cut a long story short we ended up £1000 better off (£650 +£350 for the "insult") plus a case of very good malt whisky for us to "celebrate" with. After this experience I'm trying hard to not be "done" again through lack of knowledge, hence the post on here in the 1st place.

 

Love the story....if you need any help with the malt....