Every 3 years I get a load of hardwood slab wood from the pallet factory up the road from me. I order it several months in advance and yesterday it arrived. We use it in our woodstove in the fall and spring when we do not require a lot of heat and also as fire starter all winter. It comes all debarked and cut into 16 inch pieces which burn hot with little ash. The biggest problem is stacking it as it is just dumped from a 10 wheeler but it usually turns out being around 18 face cord after stacking for $325.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34694/IMG_0889.JPG)
If I had access to that I wouldn't burn anything else. I am amazed at the low price, do you have an in with them?
Quote from: r.man on April 08, 2014, 07:13:59 PM
If I had access to that I wouldn't burn anything else. I am amazed at the low price, do you have an in with them?
The price went up this year. It used to be $300. a load. It burns to hot and quick to use when you need a fire all night.
My boy got a pickup load of ash slabs last week, all bucked to length to finish out the season. He bragged about how hot it burned and the longer burn times he was getting. I told him the reason it burned better was because it was so dry. I've been trying to drill it in his head for two years to get his wood cut early so it would dry. Now, seeing it first hand, maybe he believes me.
I have burned a lot of slabwood in the past and you can make it last longer by pairing up wide pieces so there is not as much air space. Placement will allow you to " build " bigger blocks of wood, the reverse of what I do when I want to produce a lot of heat or coals fast.
When I saw your post I couldn't believe my eyes. Here's why....
In 1989 I had just got married and lived, while in the army, in an apartment in Colorado Springs, Co with my wife. I had spent many years cutting firewood and thought I knew everything about it. One day a guy knocks at my door and asked if I wanted to buy some firewood and says "no slabwood in it" being broke I said no, but looked at my wife and asked, did he say slabwood? I had no idea what slabwood was and every now and then my wife and I laugh at it. I see the picture but still don't know what the heck slabwood is? If you don't mind could you solve a 25 year old mystery for me, What the heck is slabwood????????? ::)
Slabwood is just the first cut taken off the outside of a log when milling. It is a D shaped piece of wood that also contains the sapwood. Cut the slabs to length and it is lower quality firewood. :)
A picture of slabs.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10436/slabs.JPG)
Heck yeah I burn slabwood. In the fall and the spring, when the fire doesn't need the staying power to fight off single digit or teens temperature it's all I burn. December thru mid-March it's small rounds and big splits. I second R.MAN's comment - I stack the slabs tight when I want it to last a while. I usually burn last year's slabs, or at least stuff from the spring prior. That way they are dry and burn hot. I burn a lot of pine slabs and find that the dried wood slobbers less creosote out the smokestac. I've got a few cords of slabwood already piled up and ready to cut and stack. Probably 20% of my firewood each year is slabs.
There is a great relationship between a sawmill and a woodstove. I get an endless supply of wood through my clearing business, and I bring it home and separate firewood from sawlogs. Then, even the sawlogs provide me and my employees with more firewood when I cut off the slabs.
I never knew. Living in Texas I really never knew about the milling process of making lumber. At least the slabwood isn't going to waste.
Slabwood was and can be a waste product at mills that don't run a debarker and a chipper. Debarking allows the mill to keep the bark mostly out of the chips and this separation allows both by-products to be sold rather than disposed of. In many areas barked and debarked slabwood is a waste product that gets burned for disposal because of a lack of local market for firewood or chips.
At the mill I get the slabwood from they waste nothing. The logs are debarked and they shred the bark dye it brown and sell it as mulch. The slabwood gets sold as firewood, the sawdust is sold to farmers for their animals, and the trimmings from sizing the lumber get put out by the road for people to use as kindling.
Quote from: 21incher on April 08, 2014, 07:19:40 PM
Quote from: r.man on April 08, 2014, 07:13:59 PM
If I had access to that I wouldn't burn anything else. I am amazed at the low price, do you have an in with them?
The price went up this year. It used to be $300. a load. It burns to hot and quick to use when you need a fire all night.
Here in Southern Il we pay $30.00 for a load of slabs 4 ft high 7 ft wide 16 ft long that is roughly 2 cords. I sell the thin pieces for fire starter and the big ends split and they go in my bundled firewood
Quote from: jargo432 on April 11, 2014, 11:01:49 PM
I never knew. Living in Texas I really never knew about the milling process of making lumber. At least the slabwood isn't going to waste.
I sell a lot of my slab wood to people with little wood burners for when we loss power they heat there homes and cook on the little stoves. They are mostly older people the bundles are quit large so I deliver them put them by there stove and when they need them they cut the plactic and there in business
21incher
You really need to talk to your customers and find out what they prefer at their location.
A lot of gas stations like slab wood or sawmill cutoff bundles because they make nice, neat, square bundles that are easy to palletize and stack next to the pumps. Often, there is just as much bark and sapwood in these pieces as there is heartwood. Not exactly premium grade firewood.
Some Campgrounds like them too because the wood burns very quick and the customer is forced to come back for more bundles.
Then there are the other customers that prefer real split firewood in bundles of 5 or 6 pieces to bundle. Many times they are told their customers prefer these and strongly dislike the sawmill cuttoff bundles. Listen to you customer and then charge them accordingly for what they want.