Slabwood for firewood?

That's a good idea! I don't have a truck or trailer yet unfortunately. However I could maybe use my brother's round bale wagon ......thanks for the idea TurboDiesel!

 

I'd gladly burn it, if you get a lot of smaller pieces use them to go on the ground, placing them cross ways to the length of the your stacks, then use longer pieces going with the length, then stack your wood on top, it'll get your pile off the ground a few inches. You can also use the little pieces when they are longer to throw in 2 stacks every so often to help stabilize the both of them.

 

Nice

 

From time to time we buy slabwood. The sawmill we buy from debarks their logs and makes oak flooring so it is all oak! They bundle and strap it, sell it for 25 a bundle and load on my trailer. My 24' gooseneck can only haul two bundles at a time. In the OWB in the winter, it eats through slab wood, use it mainly in the summer to keep the water hot in the house.

 

I picked up three bundles in June and cut most of it. I have been pulling ash trees out of the woods and neglecting to stack the rest of the slab wood.

The stack on the right is tight but i have pulled pieces out and split them and tested with my moisture meter and they are below 20% moisture content. I am stacking the larger pieces on another pallet in a much looser fashion for better air flow.

My plan is to pad my cord wood with the slab wood. Primarily using the slab wood to start fires and for the shoulder season.

There were a lot of small pieces that I put into grain sacks and set out in the sun to dry. I plan on using the wood for kindling. I have put some sacks away in my pole barn already.


I have more time invested in my slab wood than money. As you can see the whole area is a mess, had I approached it with a better plan the mess could have easily been avoided. I will probably buy just one bundle next year and focus more on scrounging. Ill have to see how it works out this winter.

 

I used to get slab wood in round bundles from a local lumber yard. I paid $15 a bundle loaded in my truck. Here, most slab wood was softwood. It was ideal for getting a fire back up and running. I see it for sale just a mile down the road for $60 a bundle. Great for those backyard fire pits. This picture is an example I found on the net.

 

I used to burn quite a bit of slab in the old stove, this cat stove just doesn't like it as well. I would definitely say to give it a test drive.

 

I went and picked up 2 bundles of oak slabs this morning. I was gonna try to take 4 but thought that might be a bit much for the trailer. I don't know how much each bundle weighs. The guy I got them from said he should have thicker slabs in the future if I want some. I gave him $20 even though he said $5 was plenty to cover the fuel of his loader. He says he'll give me some free ones in the future. I may give some of this to my brother for his OWB for letting me use his truck and round bale trailer.

 

You won't hurt that round bale hauler...those things are stout, load 'er up!
It does look like that is a lot of pretty thin stuff...not great for those long cold January nights, but it'll work the rest of the time!

 

I bought 8 bundles a few weeks ago and loaded them on 3 wagons like that one.it pulled heavier than when we put 31 round bales on them i was surprised

 

correction 2 wagons not 3 opps

 

I got a pickup load of fir and hemlock slabs from a mill 2 years ago, just by luck. Just strapped it into "logs" and processed it like any other wood. No complaints.

 

Honestly I’d love picking through that kinda stuff. It has a cool sort of thing to it when not one single piece is really consistent to others but you have a variety to choose from. Is this just ash mill cuts as you say?

 

The slabs I bought are a mixed bag of soft and hard woods. Pine and oak are the majority of the wood that were in the bundles. Some of the wood I have no idea what it is, this is my second year burning and my identification knowledge is limited.

One of the bundles had a lot of skinny pieces like broom handle width and another had long cordwood sized slabs.

The mill I purchased the slabs from makes cabinets and custom lumber. It is a husband and wife operation and they don't have a large quantity.

I am about done screwing around with slabs until I am burning them. I am waiting on a saw sproket for my ms251 I just bought a 362c but I need it this weekend for cutting. The wood dulls chains much quicker than cordwood and handling it is time consuming. Trying to save time I grabbed a piece of hog wire and 2 double ended snaps and fashioned quick and easy way to contain them. It is similar to a corn crib. This is how I am going to deal with the rest of it. I keep getting an error when trying to upload the pic.

Its a lot of work but no doubt this stuff is going to burn HOT and FAST.

 

Yeah I had a pile of free doug fir and small mix of maple here and there in mill cuts. No doubt it is a bit of a pain to cut but once I had a system for it, things went quicker. Just the odd shapes of the longer cuts had more pain in my azz situations and they didnt weigh the same because sometimes they cut off the stub of the limbs and often that just teetered the cut. Other cuts were easier so to speak.

I actually moved some of these pieces I had leftover just recently and they seem like they would make great pile toppings to wick away rain since they are curved from the bark. Never used them that way before but hey they were free and still a pain in the azz to cut. Small limbs and tree lengths are preferable ya know.

 

Here is my contribution to the slabwood picture library and sorry the picture is not clear since I have stacked it in a shed so it will remain dry

 

OOh, slabwood getting the white glove treatment.