I work with a lot of amish for my job. One of them started up a sawmill this summer. I stopped in to see him today and asked him about what he does with all of his slabwood and cutoffs. He said the cutoffs he and his workers use but the slabwood he simply tosses in a pit and burns However he told me if I wanted some he would save me some and I could just take it. Score! I thought before I commit to this I would ask....how hard is it to process slabwood? Does anyone here use it exclusively/a lot? If I remember correctly I believe Spirit of Two Socks mentioned using slabwood in another thread? Thoughts/opinions/comments...
Uh, just go get it. Figure it out once you have it home. I only processed slabwood once. A bit of a pain, but it's still firewood, so..................
Agree with papadave get it... if you don’t have a sawbuck, it’ll give you reason to build one.. or you can just hang it out of a pickup truck to cut it in bulk.. ratchet strap around a bundle could help keep it in place. any wood that doesn’t need to be run through the splitter is good in my book. Due to its shape, it may stack more densely than cordwood so that’ll be a space saver but could cause drying time to go up slightly but slabwood should dry pretty quickly.
Never used it, but it seems there would be more bark than wood. It would probably make good shoulder season wood.
Hey Marvin . Yes, I have mentioned before on FHC that about 80% of my firewood is slabwood. I get mine from a sawmill in Big Valley that is run by Amish. Most of it is oak, along with some other hardwoods like ash. They let me back my truck up to the pile and handpick and load every piece. Or they have loaded dumpsters that they will dump in your truck. I like to pick my own wood instead of the dumpsters. I get some thin pieces for splitting into kindling and then bigger pieces. Some of the pieces are very big. I used to split everything by hand. Then for a few years I rented a log splitter. This Spring I bought my own splitter. So, to answer your question: I do not find it difficult to process slabwood. In fact, I like that it is already cut and debarked. The only drawback it has in my opinion is that it doesn't stack quite as well as cordwood. Really no big deal if you have the time and patience. I posted some pics of my stacks when I first joined FHC. I'll post a few more and one of a typical truckload of slabwood. The pics of the stacks in my field were taken in April. ( I have more in my driveway. ) The stack that is gray was left over from last year. The others have turned almost as gray. If it ever stops raining I'll take a more recent pic. I have the wood up on landscaping timbers.
Hmmm not what I would imagine slabwood to be. There's a small sawmill operation not far from me, and whenever I've gone by, the scraps are thin pieces, and look "barky", nothing like the "slabs" shown above.
Sooner or later it has to I would think Thanks Spirit of Two Socks....I was pretty sure you had mentioned slabwood.
Being worth it really depends on who is sawing it. When I saw for myself, I try to get as much out of each log as I can. This means nothing but bark when it is done. But for custom sawmillers, they set the saw height to the small end of the log and whack off a big slab. It looses some boards, but time is money and makes a cant in 4 quick cuts. They also would have customers that would complain that boards have a lot of bark on them. Myself, if I can get a 4 inch wide board, 4 feet long, I am happy. The top boards I just saw through and through and make the small board with a skillsaw later. As I said, I get as much as I can out of my wood. Neither party is wrong, I have time and glean more wood, but it is extra work on my part.
It certainly makes a difference if the logs have been debarked or not as most of what you get from the bark is ash and just a little heat. As for processing, the very best way is to use a buzz saw. Yet, I have cut lots of slabwood just thrown into a pile. Just take the saw and cut what you can then throw that out of the way and continue cutting. A couple years ago I did this for a neighbor when he was laid up. He was not home when I did it but later he called me to thank me again and ask how his son did for helping me out. Ha! Never saw his son. He was surprised at how quickly I got the job done. It is not difficult. A sawbuck can help too but just means a bit more handling. Still, you can cut without bending that way.
Slab is alright. I don't think it is less work, it is different work. Most stuff I got still had bark, and size varied greatly. As long as it isn't pine or something like that, free wood is good wood. I bring in slab by the trailer load, and mix it in with whatever else I get my hands on.
If it were me, and i had a trailer, i'd put some 4x4s to stack the slab wood on, then like one of the other posters mentioned put some straps around it, and cut it to length. I'd love to get a couple of trailer loads of slab wood.
I would use it for those starter fires, getting the stove up to temp. It lights up and gets going pretty good.
I have used it in the past for wood stove and it is nice. This year I found a good supply of it in 8'lenghts which I buy for 35 a bundle 4x3x8' ash or maple.I just bought 8 bundles the other day and ended up paying 330.00 for it.I figure that is almost enough for a winter just cut,stack& burn.Now to buy a Buzz saw so I can cut easier than with chainsaw..
My sister uses it a lot...the bundles are huge...can only get 3 on a gooseneck flatbed trailer...and thats quite the load! 10-12' long and some of the slabs hafta be split. IIRC they charge 20$ per bundle...and yeah, it is a bit of a pain to cut...best way we found it a 36" bar on the 660, try to slice through the whole bundle at once...but invariably the last few feet collapses into a pile of mess...hafta finish up on a sawbuck.
I think you're going to like burning the hardwood slabs. Still takes awhile for them to season properly for an epa stove, but the wait is well worth it! Only trouble is....slab firewood can easily be considered gopher wood. You know, throw in a piece and gopher another.....
I had some oak slabs for a couple of Winters. Not exclusively but I didn't have a lot of nice dry firewood either. They were sort of free and they appeared in my driveway with no or litle advance notice. When my saw wouldn't start I'd cut them with an old beat up tablesaw. Not ideal but it worked. I don't remember having t split too many of them and I'd end up with a fairly large mound of bark in the Spring. I let them sit in heaps with an occasional athwartships board for some circulation rather than cut them to length far in advance and try to stack them. Lots of weekends cutting up slabs for firewood for the upcoming the week. It was free wood and fairly dry.
Thanks for all of the input everyone. I think I'll see about getting a bundle or two this weekend. Figure I would be to turn it down since the price is right.
I just had a thought, Marvin. If you had a trailer you could park there, would they just toss them on the trailer and you could haul it away when it needs emptied?
