Buying slab firewood

[zogger]

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. Wood is larch.



7

Goes fast that way!

 

[Fred Wright]

I would pay for it only if they loaded it. The stuff the local sawmill sets out is more bark than wood.

 

[Philbert]

Interesting . . . . .

Philbert

 

[Polish hammer]

What are you guys paying for slab wood these days? I'm in Wisconsin and get a card of 3/4 pine and spruce the rest hardwood delivered for 40$ seems good to be since I sell the soft wood and only sell a few face cord of hard wood.. Curious as to what other area prices

 

[turnkey4099]

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

You forgot the bit about 'you burned your house down burning pine!' That one never seems to die off.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I had a house burn down, but it wasn't from pine!

I've burned a LOT of "seasoned" pine over the years, and I've never had even one problem with it...

SR

 

[panolo]

$35 for 3/4 cord bundles. 98% red oak and the rest is birch. I helped a guy out and he gave me 12 bundles. He sells and delivers them all over. Surprising it's not terribly barky. I've had them sitting for a few months and most the bark falls off when I cut them down to size. I'm gonna give it a whirl this winter and see how they do in the cold.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Slabwood is anything but easy to process firewood. You still have to cut it to length and split it. Most is not dry. And, it just does not look like firewood. Any customer can tell you that. So, I stopped fooling with it. Most of the saw mills around here now shred it all for mulch, dye it, and bulk sell it that way.

 

[Polish hammer]

I do agree after just tonight finishing 2 and a half cords what a pain! Stacks so tight you need alotmif wood to make anything and a lot is bark or just thin! But for to run the new to
Me 461 that was fun

 

[Philbert]

Slab wood is great for small stoves.

Cut it in a stack. Split for size only; use a hatchet or small axe. Stacks tight.

Philbert

 

[Wood Doctor]

Slab wood is great for small stoves. Cut it in a stack. Split for size only; use a hatchet or small axe. Stacks tight.

Philbert

Agree, but that tight stacking slows down air drying and invites insects and moisture to stay around. As long as you don't mind that, go for it. Crib stacking might help out. Oh and BTW, figure on twice as much bark to contend with.

 

[Deleted member 117362]

Cross stack it. Easy to cut and stack, but seemed to go fast. It was free, so worth the time.

 

[muddstopper]

Slabwood is anything but easy to process firewood. You still have to cut it to length and split it. Most is not dry. And, it just does not look like firewood. Any customer can tell you that. So, I stopped fooling with it. Most of the saw mills around here now shred it all for mulch, dye it, and bulk sell it that way.

Most, if not all, the small saw mills around have been ran out of business. Slab wood is almost non-exsistant. The big mills, debark before sawing, and the slabs are chipped, mixed with the saw dust, and sold for pulp. The bark is piled and sold as mulch. Local demand for the bark mulch is great enough that the mills cant keep it stockpiled.

 

[7sleeper]

Slabwood is anything but easy to process firewood. You still have to cut it to length and split it. Most is not dry. And, it just does not look like firewood.

Slab wood is easy to process & to dry in my experience.

Any customer can tell you that. So, I stopped fooling with it. Most of the saw mills around here now shred it all for mulch, dye it, and bulk sell it that way.

Of course it is not "pretty" wood, so I agree totally that it is not ideal to sell.

7

 

[Erik B]

For the last couple of years I have seen slab wood for sale for $75.00 per face cord with the wood cut at 16".

 

[Wood Doctor]

I also ran into another problem with slabs. Because most of it comes from the outside of the log or from rejected logs, you run into more nails, screws, barbed wire, and embedded spikes. So, be on the lookout.

 

[GrizzlyAdams86]

Surprised gunny hasn't popped up in this thread yet asking for free slabwood...

But back to the main topic, while growing up we heated our old trailerhouse with a woodstove. Dad hauled logs for a mill and could get cull logs and slab bundles for firewood. We usually only kept 1 or 2 bundles of slabs around for kindling or warmer months, we just cut what we needed from the slab bundles. Dad did say he would haul a full truck and trailer load of slab bundles (16 bundles total, he had a Ford LTL 9000 with a 16' pup trailer) to a someone who had a bunks made up to hold all the bundles. The man then used a Husky 2100 with a 48" bar to cut the bundles after dad unloaded them, then told dad "I'm done cutting my firewood for the season."

 

[Streblerm]

Around here roughly 1/2-2/3 cord bundles are $10-20 each if you pick them up $30-40 each delivered depending on volume and time of year. Other than lots of handling I like burning slabwood.

 

[Deleted member 117362]

Around here roughly 1/2-2/3 cord bundles are $10-20 each if you pick them up $30-40 each delivered depending on volume and time of year. Other than lots of handling I like burning slabwood.

No splitting involved. Just cut and burn.

 

[Wood Doctor]

No splitting involved. Just cut and burn.

Disagree. There is going to be splitting involved unless you are using it for bonfires. Some slab wood logs sold around here are 18" wide. I've spent hours splitting them after bucking to length. Less than half do not require splitting.