Native Irish yew

GreatOaktree

Hi all, I recently had a digger in and he took down two large Irish yew trees from the side of my extension. I hear the timber is good for furniture makin and I would like to maybe have a go at making a four post bed. Will the timber season naturally if I just leave the trees lying there or should I saw them up and leave them stacked under a cover ? How soon can I have a go on my neighbours lathe ?

Are they worth much ? Who could I contact about selling one of them, I'm in south Leitrim?

greysides

Hopefully some one else can elaborate but as far as I know Yew is somewhat toxic.

Nekarsulm

Try the Archery forum?

Ineedaname

GreatOaktree wrote: »

Hi all, I recently had a digger in and he took down two large Irish yew trees from the side of my extension. I hear the timber is good for furniture makin and I would like to maybe have a go at making a four post bed. Will the timber season naturally if I just leave the trees lying there or should I saw them up and leave them stacked under a cover ? How soon can I have a go on my neighbours lathe ?

Are they worth much ? Who could I contact about selling one of them, I'm in south Leitrim?

The wood will need to be converted into boards. You can hire someone to do this on-site. As for drying you can either use a kiln or air dry them. A kiln would have them usable much faster but it will cost you. Air drying is free but it would take around a year before the wood could be used.

It's hard to guess what they're worth as it depends on the size and quality of the tree. You could try selling one on DoneDeal

greysides wrote: »

Hopefully some one else can elaborate but as far as I know Yew is somewhat toxic.

The leaves and seeds are toxic if ingested. The wood is safe although the dust can be harmful so good ventilation would be recommended.

tabby aspreme

Op if you intend making something the size of a bed out of the yew, I would cut both trees into planks as its very hard to know how much usable timber you will get from a yew tree until its sawn up, the main trunk of a yew is often made up of three or four separate trunks which have grown into each other over time and its not until the wood is planked that the full extent of this is seen

Chisler2

GreatOaktree wrote: »

Hi all, I recently had a digger in and he took down two large Irish yew trees from the side of my extension. I hear the timber is good for furniture makin and I would like to maybe have a go at making a four post bed. Will the timber season naturally if I just leave the trees lying there or should I saw them up and leave them stacked under a cover ? How soon can I have a go on my neighbours lathe ?

Are they worth much ? Who could I contact about selling one of them, I'm in south Leitrim?

Just curious but - what was your reason for uprooting the yew trees? Also, I wondered how old your trees are/were. Yews are astonishingly long-lived.........hundreds of years!

timfromtang

GreatOaktree wrote: »

Hi all, I recently had a digger in and he took down two large Irish yew trees from the side of my extension. I hear the timber is good for furniture makin and I would like to maybe have a go at making a four post bed. Will the timber season naturally if I just leave the trees lying there or should I saw them up and leave them stacked under a cover ? How soon can I have a go on my neighbours lathe ?

Are they worth much ? Who could I contact about selling one of them, I'm in south Leitrim?

Hi Great Oak,
How large are the logs?
I am in the midlands. I have a chainsaw operated sawmill (logosol) and would be happy to plank your two yew trees for you, either for euros or a portion of the yew planks. As for drying them, I'd suggest air drying in a properly stickered stack for a long time (about 1 year per 1" of thickness of the planks) this will bring your timber down to about 14% moisture in irish conditions, at this point the timber can be brought inside the workshop to further dry before building your bed. If you do not wish to wait so long the drying process can be accellerated dramatically by solar drying techniques, or indeed an insulated box in your workshop with a room dehumidifier in.

As for value,
Wet planks ungraded off the sawmill ( Run of the Mill ) are worth only about 12-20 euro per cubic foot dependent on species (yew will be dear)

others are selling dried graded yew planks at about 50-80 euros per cubic foot (Two 12" wide, 1" thick, 6 foot long kiln dried Yew boards from the lisnavagh timber project will cost you 75 euro plus vat)
Air dried timber is usually about 25% cheaper.

The logs themselves however have a much lower value, as, as another poster has observed, yew often has conjoined stems intergrown deep within the log, and yield of high grades of planks from yew are low.
hope this helps
tim