What is a "slab?"

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

A recent posting used the term "slab" and it seemed that the word had quite a few different meanings.  Perhaps, or maybe not, we can come to a common meaning on this forum so that we can communicate with each other more clearly and accurately.

Traditionally, within the industry 40 years ago or so, a slab only meant the piece of wood that was produced when initially sawing a log face.  As such, there would be one rounded face where the bark had been (or still was) attached, and one sawn face.  It was not edged.  The main value was for fuel, because any lumber from a sawmill required two sawn parallel faces.  At the mill I managed, we had a slab saw that cut these slabs into shorter lengths, like 18", for use as firewood.


So, what is the difference between a piece of lumber and a slab?  Which definitions apply to a slab?

1a.  A piece initially sawn from a log face when "squaring up" the log.  It has no potential to be made into lumber (with two flat faces).  Traditional definition indeed.

1b.  A thicker piece initially sawn from a log face when "squaring" up the log.  It can be resawn to produce a piece of lumber and a smaller slab referred to in 1a.

2a.  Any thick piece of lumber that has been edged.

2b.  Any piece of lumber, any thickness, that has been edged.

3a.  A thick piece of unedged lumber that still has the rounded edges from the log.  This is sometimes called an unedged cant or flitch.

3b. A piece of unedged lumber, any thickness, that still has the rounded edges from the log.

4.  A thick piece of lumber, edged or unedged, that will be further sawn or resawn, into thinner pieces of lumber.  This is also called a cant.

5a.  Any unedged thick piece of lumber.  The edges can be partially sawn, or rounded.

5b. Any edged thick piece of lumber.  The edges can be sawn, or partially sawn.

6.  If a slab (defined in any of the above definitions) is green, air dried or kiln dried, it is still a slab.

7.  In any of the above definitions, must the definition include that a slab be at least be a certain width?  Or length?

8.  ......?  Other?

Note:  The strict definition of lumber is a flat piece of wood with parallel edges, a rectangular parallelpiped, at least 1" thick, 3" wide and 4' long.  However, in the above definitions, unedged lumber also means a piece of wood that has the potential, with a small amount of additional manufacturing, to be made into lumber.

[Kbeitz]

I also was ready to make a remark on the post but I got confused so I keep quite.
I was always told the slab wood had a rounded face and was used for firewood.
I thought the guy should have used the word mantels.

[Magicman]

We must remember that most of the "slab" buyers in today's market have no idea what terms and definitions are traditionally correct in the lumber industry.  If it is thick, it is a slab.  I have heard the term used to describe a big fish, bacon, steak, or a slice of cake.   

[terrifictimbersllc]

I often have customers use the term as a verb, asking about my services to "slab up their logs".   In further discussion i find they do not necessarily mean through and through sawing.

As to definitions in the dictionary words often have more than one, sometimes many meanings.

[Dan_Shade]

I once cut a very large slab because the customer wanted one (to me the slab has a curved face).   He looked at me kinda funny, then I realized he wanted a thick flitch.

After that if someone wants something strange, I ask a few questions, or might even draw a picture.

[LeeB]

So, you could set your mill up on a concrete slab. Then you could cut the slabs off the log and then cut the cant into nice thick slabs. Come lunch time you could eat your of slab bacon and then get back to work before the boss slabs you upside the head for goofing off too long.  :D :D :D

[terrifictimbersllc]

We got a good start here,  it is always spelled the same way. 

[Sparty]

Customers ask for slabs + customer has the $ = (slab=whatever a customer thinks is a slab)

The only thing that the Dr. did wrong in the original post was to give too many choices.

Sounds like most sawyers would agree that slabs are the "waste" cuts. 

[Ozarker]

The 1a definition conforms to what I've always heard, and used. These slabs were also referred to as puncheons, many years back. Puncheon may be regional, but its use was fairly wide-spread.

[4x4American]

So, you could set your mill up on a concrete slab. Then you could cut the slabs off the log and then cut the cant into nice thick slabs. Come lunch time you could eat your of slab bacon and then get back to work before the boss slabs you upside the head for goofing off too long.  :D :D :D

Lol


So would I be correct in calling a 3-1/4" thick flitch a flitch?

The guy I'm sawig for now has me "filleting" logs lol

[4x4American]

EDITED BY ADMIN. ABSOLUTELY INAPPROPRIATE FOR THE FORESTRY FORUM

my bad..

[thecfarm]

LeeB,I would be late getting back from lunch beacuse I had to eat my slab of cake.

Chesterville use to be called Slab City because of the high slabs piles on each side of the road.

[Jeff]

From Dictionary.com
noun
1.a broad, flat, somewhat thick piece of stone, wood, or other solid material.
2.a thick slice of anything:
a slab of bread.
3.a semifinished piece of iron or steel so rolled that its breadth is at least twice its thickness.
4.a rough outside piece cut from a log, as when sawing one into boards.
5.Baseball Slang. rubber1(def 14).
6.Building Trades. a section of concrete pavement or a concrete floor placed directly on the ground or on a base of gravel.
verb (used with object), slabbed, slabbing.
7.to make into a slab or slabs.
8.to cover or lay with slabs.
9.to cut the slabs or outside pieces from (a log).
10.to put on in slabs; cover thickly

In my sawmill career, on the profession side of things a slab was the part of the log removed to get to the lumber, to be chipped or burned. To the consumer or customer, it is what ever they define it to be. You don't argue semantics when someone is handing you $25 for a bundle of slabs, or three $100 bills for just one "slab".

The term "flitch" to me, was unknown for 25 years. Never heard is used in this region. First time was here on the Forestry Forum. Then again, I was a bit sheltered, my entire world was 3.5 foot by 5 ft sawbooth.

I got lumber to the left,
Got logs to the right,
Goona be sawing them all *DanG night,
I got those gotta get that load out blues...

[YellowHammer]

Certainly there seems to be a difference between what industry calls a slab, and the common term that the customer may use.  When a customer asks me for a "slab" I almost always have to ask them what they mean to clarify.  From my perspective from dealing with a variety of folks, both professional furniture makers and amateur woodworkers, a contextual definition of a slab seems to be a thick piece of wood that they can't accurately or conveniently described dimensionally with common terms easily, unlike as a 2x12 or a 4x4, and they don't want to be embarrassed by not knowing what to call it.  So it would be an irregular width hunk of wood, unedged, or only edged on one side that would be described by a customer as "Do you have kiln dried slabs?  You know, a piece of wood, 2 1/2 to 4 inches thick, maybe 18 to 36 inches wide, kind of straight but doesn't matter, how much are they ?" ;D

I used to say, you mean a wide, thick flitch? And they'd say, "I don't know, I'm looking for a slab."

Of course, the next guy comes up and asks if I sell slabs for firewood, and I point him to the big pile or "real slabs" fresh off the mill out in the mud and he starts loading them on his trailer.   :D

[drobertson]

It just seems that it's one of those things where people use the same term for different purposes.  It seems only fare that the term slab should be in reference to the opening face cut of a log.  How the rest of the products are named would almost seem to be a regional thing.. I have been slabbed across the head before, and there was no real good reason that I can remember ;D

[Ga Mtn Man]

.. I have been slabbed across the head before, and there was no real good reason that I can remember ;D

That does explain an awful lot. ;D

[thecfarm]

I never heard of a flitch either.
I work in a hardware store. Three people will come in and ask for the same thing,but they all call it a different name.   ;D  I always try to question them and find out what they are using it for. That will put me in the right aisle to help them.

[Kbeitz]

I got the word from my Dad calling this an old slab house...
We had a lot of them in our area a long time ago...




 

[LeeB]

I heard the term flitch before I got into milling. Read it in a book on woodworking referencing the sequential cuts of a log sawn through and through. I learned the term through and through after I started milling. At the moment I can't remember the name of the author of the woodworking book but he was british I believe and quite well followed in his time. I want to say the book was written in the 40's maybe.

[red]

In the furniture business slab has a different meaning. Tree slab dining table, wood slab furniture, live edge wood slab, slab wood bench, reclaimed slab. Stone and masonry slabs have a similar meaning.  With a little more description it makes sense.

[Cedarman]

This discussion points out that it is extremely important to have an open dialog between customer and sawyer.  The goal is to give the customer the product that they have in their mind.  Many times customers have trouble describing exactly what they want. IF not enough time is taken to get a "meeting of the minds", then problems will arise.  I am often asked for 2x4s.  If I didn't narrow down the actual size wanted, I would be giving the customer something they didn't expect to get over half of the time.
Having a good set of pictures with captions to e-mail potential customers might go a long way.
Just today I am sending a set of pictures showing all red, mostly red , and less than mostly red cedar to a customer so that they can get a visual idea of the differences.  Saves a lot of talking.
This all  comes about because the word "slab" is not the slab itself, but a set of abstract symbols evoking a real  world image in the brain.  As we all know, the same symbols can evoke completely different thoughts among different people.

[drobertson]

I heard the term flitch before I got into milling. Read it in a book on woodworking referencing the sequential cuts of a log sawn through and through. I learned the term through and through after I started milling. At the moment I can't remember the name of the author of the woodworking book but he was british I believe and quite well followed in his time. I want to say the book was written in the 40's maybe.

I read an old book, something like "back to basics" so not really that old, but used older terms,, a flitch is described as a board of any thickness with bark edges still in tact. 

[Darrel]

flitch Is a word I never heard until I joined forestry forum, and from what I understand it is anything a slab is except maybe thinner and maybe a few other things that to me are relatively unimportant. That is why with my mill I only cut slabs, cants and lumber.

And one more thing, some of us can't figure out when a log becomes a cant.
:D

[Tom the Sawyer]

First reference to "flitch" that I read was in books by Krenov.  Generally, around here "slab" means the first 3 or 4 cuts made on the log - with one milled face, although some callers ask about "slabbing" their logs or buying "slabs" as in thick pieces.  My woodworking education was that less than 1/4 were veneers, 1/4-6/4 were boards, 7/4 to 15/4 were planks, 16/4 and up were timbers.  Live-edge was one bark edge and one milled edge, flitch was two bark edges.

There are so many terms used that it probably doesn't make much difference as long as you and the client/customer understand what you are talking about.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Yep. I never heard of a flitch till I got involved with sawmilling. A slab to me was a flat section of concrete or a big crappie. I guess a native edge mantel could called a slab or a flitch and a squared sided 4 mantel could be either a board or cant.

    I advertise slabs in a local trader paper which are just thick cut native edges for woodworkers, gunsmiths, and sometimes as a mantel for some customers.