What's everyone do with their slabs?

ohsoloco · December 12, 2002, 11:05:02 AM

For at least a year since I've been sawing, I was giving my slabwood away to friends or whoever would take it off my hands...it doesn't take long to make a big stack after a weekend of sawing. One guy that was supposed to take some a few weeks ago never showed up, so I decided to put an ad in the paper and try to sell them. I sold truckloads pretty cheap. Too bad I didn't have more! I've had so many calls in the past week from people wanting truckloads, and others begging me to call them when I get more. Just curious to hear what y'all are doing with yours...

Bibbyman · December 12, 2002, 11:22:08 AM

In the summer months a lot go up in smoke.

In the fall we start saving up the meatier ones and through fall and winter cut them up for firewood on our Blockbuster firewood processor along with cull logs and bad heartsaws.

Not many people around here will take slabs for firewood even if you give them away because of the work cutting them up. We've developed a few customers who will buy them cutup and delivered.

There is a place not too far away that will buy red cedar slabs to grind into something. But they have to be bundled and banded and delivered. Sad to say, it's more economical to burn them than put that much time and expense into taking them to market.

Bro. Noble · December 12, 2002, 11:28:15 AM

We tried selling them with very little success. Then offered to give them away without getting rid of many. We now sell to a charcoal company. We get about $170 for a semi load. Pay $120 to have them hauled. We are getting rich real slow on this deal. We are thankful to be rid of them and glad the charcoal kiln is 50 miles away.

Right now we are sawing walnut and have to burn the slabs and the charcoal company doesn't want walnut or cedar. We sell pine slabs to a place that is nearer who grinds them. We come out a little better on those.

Noble

GarryW · December 12, 2002, 11:37:17 AM

I try to give my slabs to the local sugar houses. When I can't do that I try to cut the slabs less than 6" wide and chip them up. I them give the chips to friends. But I still have a pile laying around.

Tom · December 12, 2002, 11:49:17 AM

We cook on an open fire very frequently and use up a lot of hardwood slab-wood and log trimmings. I give as much away as I can but they want me to cut it and deliver it. I keep it for myself rather than do that. Softwood slabs either go to the monthly bonfire and weiner roast or to the backside of the property with the hopes that they will rot quickly.

I wish I could chip them. It makes for some rich ground and I would spread the compost in my pine plantation.

GarryW · December 12, 2002, 12:22:41 PM

Tom,
If you were closer I'd bring the tractor over and we could chip 'em up for you.

Weekend_Sawyer · December 12, 2002, 12:34:48 PM

A couple of my friends pick up most of them, the rest goes in my Fathers fireplace and my Brothers fireplace.

Norm · December 12, 2002, 01:10:02 PM

I have tried selling them and giving them away and both were a hassle. We cut ours for firewood if they are thick enough, otherwise we have a big burn pile that we stack them up on and have a nice big bonfire. One of my favorite things is to have friends over when we get a big pile built up. It's amazing how a big fire at nite is so messmerizing.

Larry · December 12, 2002, 01:49:53 PM

Guess I am lucky getting rid of my slabs. I have one guy that I made a deal with -- he takes all or none. He comes with one of those 8' X 14' dump trailers with the high sides and saws slabs until he gets the pickup and the trailer both full. He only comes when the ground is dry or froze so he doesn't make a mess. I also can trust him so I don't have to be home when he shows up. I also log on my ground and when I can I pull the whole tree out of the hollars and cut the tops off right at the edge of the field and he cleans up the tops to.

Got some friends that have a deer camp all season long and burn both a woodstove and firepit and they take a bunch. I usually end up with a freezer full of deer sausage.

Saved some nice slabs for the Boy Scouts and they made some kind of rustic shelter with them.

When I saw power poles I take heavy slab cuts so I don't have to cut through the dirt in the cracks and avoid some nails. Those are in high demand for horse stalls.
Larry

Den Socling · December 12, 2002, 01:50:07 PM

I don't know much about this part of the forest industry but most or all of our customers chip their slabs. I see them being blown into trucks. Some, at least, sell to OSB manufacturers or paper companies. I know this only because I've noticed signs over waste belts warning of what can and can't go in. Not even a gum wrapper is allowed. yeah! a gum wrapper and a chewed wad could make the OSB look bad at the local Home Depot.

dewwood · December 12, 2002, 03:00:43 PM

GARRYW,

What kind of chipper do you have? How big of pieces can you run throught it? Does the JD run it without any problems? I have thought about a PTO drive chipper for my tractor but have not talked to anyone who has used one to chip with. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Dewey

Ron Wenrich · December 12, 2002, 03:16:01 PM

We used to sell most of our slabs, when we weren't sawing a whole lot. But, that got to be a problem, especially in the spring and summer when nobody needed wood. We were selling for $20/cord.

Eventually, we got a chipper. Our production is about a trailerload in 1 1/2 days. Depends on what we are sawing. The chips go to another operation that hogs them into mulch.

A wood hog can be a better investment than a chipper. Hogged material can be used for either mulch or animal bedding. The larger slabs may be hard on a hog, but you don't have to worry about dull knives from dirty logs.

Forestall used to make a machine called a duster. It worked on the same principle as a hog, but has a horizontal feed. I run one with a 671 Detroit, but you could get away with a smaller power unit. It makes coarse animal bedding or fine mulch. These can be gotten pretty cheap.

What I started to do was mix mushroom soil with the output from the duster. It turned a lot quicker and looked like double ground mulch.

GarryW · December 12, 2002, 03:22:12 PM

Dewey,
I have a Patu DC-65HF that mounts on the PTO of my John Deere 5310 (55 hp, 50 or so at the PTO). The tractor has never even slowed down even when I was chipping 6-7 inch trees with it. The tractor did slow down once, that was when I hit a tree with the chipper while I was driving. :( That hurt.
The chipper is rated at 6.5" and has a hydraulic feed on it. It works okay for round pieces but the slabs are sometimes a pain with it. That is why I try to narrow the slabs down to 6" or so on the mill. The hydraulic motor runs off of the tractor and required a cut over box to run it. When it is engaged I lose my up on the bucket. And every spring, the switch seems to get shorted out. The dealer has replaced it each time, and they finally moved the control box the last time. We'll see next spring if that worked.
Patu now has a self contained 10" chipper with dual feed rollers. It looks rather nice but it is around $10-11K.

GarryW · December 12, 2002, 03:26:58 PM

Dewey,
Here is what the chipper looks like.

Russ · December 12, 2002, 05:20:38 PM

I have no problem giving slabs away if I cut them 16" to 18"long. If I deliver about $35 a truck load. Hard wood I'll mix in with the cordwood.Nobody takes the long slabs.Oh yea, I built a dog house from slabs looks like a log home. It takes some extra time but if you make straight edges on them there's many crafty things that can be built from them.
Woodlot assc. slab handling
click here>>http://www.woodlot.mb.ca/sawnotes.htm#Handling%20slabs

Bro. Noble · December 12, 2002, 05:23:29 PM

Tom,

If I lived closer, I'd come over and help you eat hot dogs.

Noble

Tom · December 12, 2002, 05:52:39 PM

Wooeeee Noble, you should see the size of some of my hot dog fires. fun-n-n-n. You wouldn't believe some of the lies....er.. stories that are concocted while sitting around one. Yep, if you lived closer we could have a good old time. :D

Brian_Rhoad · December 12, 2002, 08:59:02 PM

All of our slabs and other scrap gets made into mulch. We could sell more than we make. In April,May and June some days all I get done is making mulch deliveries.

ohsoloco · December 12, 2002, 09:00:13 PM

The fires are definitely a nice occasion. This summer I supplied all of the wood for a couple of bonfires at a friend's place. I got to clean up the yard, and we all got to enjoy a nice roaring fire all night

I always cut the big slabs up for my own firewood...or wood to sell next fall.

Sounds like I'm kinda lucky I can sell these things....I thought it was funny that I couldn't give them away, but now they're lined up to buy them :D I've seen other people advertise slabs in the past at $5 a truckload, and I figured what the heck, so I advertised them for $8 a truckload, $15 delivered....haven't had the request, but would charge another ten to cut them to length. Last weekend I delivered a load to a guy that is using them to smoke his venison...perfect for him since they're still green. He was so tickled with it he had me deliver another load to him. I think there's now three people that are on my call list when I get more.

woodmills1 · December 13, 2002, 03:12:39 AM

here is a shot of mom getting ready to help burn up some slabs.

Fla._Deadheader · December 13, 2002, 04:48:24 AM

Near a hunnerd years ago, when I had my Circle mill, customers were lazy then, too !!! I sold to the local charcoal plant, by the strapped bundle. Towards winter, I would chainsaw them up to heat our home. That would get ya a thrown chain, occasionally and a pinched bar more occasionally. THEN, I found an old BENCH SAW. you know the kind. It has a push pull table mounted so you can saw across the slab, or in them days, the "Cordwood". I put a "peckerwood" motor on it, and we could saw a bundle of slabs like they was on fire. Keep the blade filed sharp. Customers (lazy ones) would catch the end and pitch it into their truck. Offer the cut stuff as "All you can put in yer pick-up or equivalent trailer". Human nature dictates that " the more I get for the same price, the more I want it." Had some people stack it very tight in their truck, and they would "Bumper Grade" my road on the way out !!! :D :D

Demand went WAY up, and we used to saw on Sat. afternoon only. Worked well into dark every Sat. nearly all winter. Course, back then, CASH was the only way to do business. NEVER had a problem selling slabs. The charcoal guy got sore, because we were one of his better suppliers. We were only 7 miles away !!!

Hey Arky, they still in business ?? Produced the best chunk charcoal I ever cooked over !!! Some days, you could smell the wood "Cookin".

bull · December 13, 2002, 06:28:45 AM

Yo bon fire Man 8)
We burn the majority of our soft wood slabs the ash is then added to our end product compost *( More Carbon)* add the
K....."NPK"
All hardwood slab is kept for firewood / heat for the house and the shop...
The bonfires are great we burned 2, 60+ cord piles the other day flames wer 50 feet in the air, temperature was in
the single digit it was 90 degrees 50' away from the pile and the ground was dry.. no snow or mud. Piles burn for about 7 days if left alone. We had 5 deer standing around the fire on the morning that was 2 below... what a site deer season and we didn't even take a shot :-/

bull · December 13, 2002, 06:34:07 AM

Our compost is made of all wood waste *( bark,sawdust,leaves,dunnage)* it sells for $25.00 a yard and we sell about 50 yards annually 8)

Bibbyman · December 13, 2002, 09:40:40 AM

I've got a cousin coming up over Chirstmas to get a load of sawdust for growing mushrooms. I know some of the slabs will grow mushrooms too - I've seen them

MrMoo · December 13, 2002, 10:18:50 AM

We use our slabs as kindling for the woodstove. We cut them to length & stack them. In the winter we go out & get an armful but before we bring them in we split them up into small pieces. The problem is that even just sawing on weekends we can produce far more than we can use although we do burn more than a cubic yard per season.
We have tried giving them away but most of our slabs are softwood. In our area nobody is willing to burn softwood in their stoves. With the way people act you would think the stuff is toxic waste or something.
At some point I figure we will need to find some one to take them but until them we have the best kindling around.