Buying slab firewood

[etc]

Looking at a local CL ad. I used to get some from them and a lot of was semi-fresh, simmering. They did have some seasoned wood that was in the back of the pile and difficult to reach.

What is a good price cord-wise assuming you have to cut it down to 20" length and load/transport it.

"25 bucks a truck load. There is about 8 truckloads of seasoned wood cut to 4 foot lengths. "

 

[El Quachito]

How bad do you need it?

 

[srb08]

$25 for a full load in an 8' bed, doesn't sound bad to me.

 

[UpOnTheHill]

I've never burned slab wood, so no personal experience here. A good friend of mine bought a bunch one year when he was behind. He said he'll never do it again. He said he would buy split firewood from a firewood supplier and just spend the extra money. Something about how small all the pieces were and it was a pita handling all those pieces. He said it made a mess for some reason, I'm not sure why.

 

[laynes69]

I've burned it, when it was my old basic furnace, it burned to fast. On my new furnace it burns well, but I wouldn't buy it in a bundle ever again. To much work for no return. If I was in a pinch, I would buy it precut, for around here its around 20 dollars a truckload.

 

[zogger]

Looking at a local CL ad. I used to get some from them and a lot of was semi-fresh, simmering. They did have some seasoned wood that was in the back of the pile and difficult to reach.

What is a good price cord-wise assuming you have to cut it down to 20" length and load/transport it.

"25 bucks a truck load. There is about 8 truckloads of seasoned wood cut to 4 foot lengths. "

Well, 20" and 4' ain't gonna work, you'll need 2 24" or 3 16" per slab.

Easiest fastest way is make something that will hold a bunch, a rack, or pound some T posts in the ground for a rack.

If it is good hardwood, obviously once dry it will burn good, just if they are thin, it will burn fast, you have to load more often/ adjust the stove to suit the situation.

 

[etc]

I've burned it, when it was my old basic furnace, it burned to fast. On my new furnace it burns well, but I wouldn't buy it in a bundle ever again. To much work for no return. If I was in a pinch, I would buy it precut, for around here its around 20 dollars a truckload.

Precut you mean cut to woodstove length? Or what? I wonder if $25 per truckload is too much considering I will have to cut every single one of them.

I found slab wood useful when starting fires, in that early phase. Or if you want something for an hour or two while knocking out the November chill. Not a serious January wood, but the price is not high and you don't have to split it.

I have a 6.5" fed with a camper shell, I wonder what's a fair price to offer for that.

 

[laynes69]

Around here many sawmills cut their slabs to wood stove length. I wouldn't get them any other way. Right now I have unlimited tops to cut, but if I didn't I wouldn't mind some for the shoulder seasons.

 

[muddstopper]

If it was me, I would snatch it up. I wouldnt worry about the 4ft lenghts either. The left over 8in chunks after cutting to 20in lengths will burn just fine and dandy. To process, Just stack it up, even up the ends and run your chainsaw thru it. Some folks are just to anal about their fire wood. As for the mess, I suspect it comes from the bark falling off the slabs.

 

[taskswap]

It's all about cost and your goals. I have a buddy that lives in Cazenovia - that's upstate NY, outside Syracuse. Around there you can drive around and find every fourth house has a huge bundle of slab in the front yard. They don't even really process and stack it, at least not that I've seen. When they need more, they just walk out there with the chainsaw and hack off some more, each time. It seasons fine in full length because it's so "open" already, so there's almost no work involved. And it's cheap as he**. I was curious about that so I pulled over to talk to one guy and he said he paid $300 for a large bundle, delivered, and it looked like about 4 cords to me. He said that was his entire winter's supply.

I don't know if that's common because here in CT I can't even get slab - I see a listing every now and then but delivery is never included and it's much more expensive. So it's not worth it for me... but I can see how if you live somewhere with a mill around and you can get it easily, it makes a lot of sense.

I'd say you should buy whatever in your area is [Best Price] * [Most Lignin] / [Effort].

 

[jthornton]

I burn a few slabs from a friends hobby sawmill and it is mostly bark but good to start a fire with.

JT

 

[066blaster]

My dad use to get some from a pallet manufacturer when I was a kid.. 10 bucks a truck load, you load. They use to be like 14x6 inches, and a inch thick. Apparently they got more efficient because now they are just really small scraps. It was hardwood and burned good after a year. It was alot of work loading, unloading, stacking. Especially because I only got a $1 a day for helping him back then.

 

[cantoo]

Depends on the slabs. Around here most mills are using thin bandsaw blades now, this means pretty small slabs as compared to large kerf rotary saws. This means less wood and more bark, in this case more bark for your dollars doesn't make you more heat. The load I got last year I would guess was at least 30 to 40% bark. And it was every length up to about 20", most were close to 10" and not worth the effort.

 

[stihlfanboy]

My cousin across the road had the Amish log his land. Has about 200 bundles of slabs behind his house. I give him 10$ a bundle witch makes 2 ricks, bezzsaw them up, split the ones that are 14" by 6" thick and sell them for 65$ a rick. Pritty easy money.

 

[zogger]

My cousin across the road had the Amish log his land. Has about 200 bundles of slabs behind his house. I give him 10$ a bundle witch makes 2 ricks, bezzsaw them up, split the ones that are 14" by 6" thick and sell them for 65$ a rick. Pritty easy money.

Plenty of good burning wood in those slabs!

 

[Philbert]

I have a wood stove fireplace insert, so my wood gets cut a lot smaller that guys with an OWB. When we first installed it, I ordered a couple of oak 'bundles' from a want ad (this was 20 years ago - before Craig's List!). The guy had trouble telling me how big a bundle was, but I ordered 2, delivered. He showed up with a boom truck and set them over my fence; each was about the size of a Ford Taurus. They were held by steel bands, so I just cut them to length, and split the wide ones easily with an axe (also before Fiskars! - for me at least). Looked like the stuff in the photo a few posts earlier. I am guessing that I got about 2 cords of sawn oak for $55 a cord, delivered. Worked for me.

Philbert

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I burn all the slab wood that comes off my BSM, in fact one year, I logged a LOT of big white pine logs,

and milled them too,

I would lift the slabs up with my tractor and my helper would cut them into firewood lengths,

I guess I did all kinds of things wrong, I heated my house all winter on slabs and on top of that, it was all pine!! cuz i've read on here that THAT is just plain "a dumb waste of time!!!" kinda like the aspen/poplar I'm heating with right now...

SR

 

[Old Doug]

I have burnt alot of them i had to load and haul. It worked ok and were free back then. If you had a buss saw and helper it would be great. But now there are place that sell reject palet wood and blocks for 10.00 to 15.00 a palet witch i think is a good deal but it burns up fast.

 

[Philbert]

I burn all the slab wood that comes off my BSM,

Nice looking rigs.

Philbert

 

[7sleeper]

I cut slab to one metre / ~ one yard length and stack them easily. The ends get a criss cross stacking and in between it's easy to fill up. Final cutting for the fireplace is done like this. And here I am only using a 50cc saw/ 19inch bar. Wood is larch.



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