Slab Wood for Kindling???

Some may remember that last spring I got a great deal on some slab wood from an Amish mill. Oak, Black Cherry and Ash. Now this was not the typical mostly bark slab wood,,Great stuff. Thoughts are already turning to next years burning season and I got to thinking about using some of it for kindling...I also have a good supply of 18 month old Cottonwood split and stacked out back. Since the slab wood is not huge or massive chucks my thinking is..Why not???...Thoughts???

 

I don't see any reason not too.
If it's too small to last any amount of time in your stove then what have you got to lose?

 

If I had access to slab wood I wouldn’t hesitate to split it into kindling. At least the fast drying cherry and ash.

 

I use slab wood for kindling. Works great.

Also use free pallets cut up into shorter pieces and once I got a truck load of solid oak flooring that was being thrown out due to water damage from a water leak in a house. I just don't burn the pieces with nails in them.

 

Most of the slab wood around here is pine. I used to buy a lot of it. Excellent for starting fires. Gets nice and hot for the hard wood. Get all you can, keep it dry. You won't regret it.

 

I would

 

I take my shorties (anything less than say 14") of pine, spruce, black locust, maple, tree of heaven, and anything else nice and straight and make kindling out of it. Dries extremely fast the smaller you split it and the shorter the splits are. Had 5x 275gallon IBC totes full of hatchet chopped by hand kindling and it's super nice to be able to just go outside and refill whenever I want.

Last year I burned through two of the totes. So far I've already burned through 1.25. It took me 5 hours from round to bin to fill 2 of those totes.

Use whatever you have available.

Here are a few pics. All the totes have the tops cut off and I cover them (obviously) when full. You can see one in the bottom right corner of the first pic.

 

Excellent. That's the way to do it!

 

Danke mucho! The process just kind of evolved organically and now when I think of the times I spent hunched over collecting twigs I laugh. Heh heh.

 

How do you use so much kindling?

 

I have an open fireplace, no stove or insert. When I wake up in the morning in winter, it can be around 55 in the living room if I don't turn on the heat overnight......which is fine for me but not so much for the wife.....so I get the fire going and I get it going quick. I probably use 3-4 handfuls of kindling each morning.

 

Every couple years in the Spring, I split up seasoned basswood into kindling for myself and a neighbor. Basswood burns like paper by just touching a match to it. In the Fall I fill an IBC tote/cage and tarp it. Splitting involves a small electric splitter, a glass of Irish whiskey, a cigar and a few tunes. It's kind of a ritual for the wife and I to spend some quality garage time together.

 

And I thought 65* was bad.

 

Excellent.