What's everyone do with their slabs?

Noble_Ma · December 13, 2002, 11:01:07 AM

I cut the hardwood up to stove length and we take the soft wood for campfires. Nothing goes to waste here.

Jeff · December 13, 2002, 11:04:47 AM

QuoteWooeeee 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

Noble, if'n yer goin, swing by and pick me up. I been to one of his fires. If we take our own Hotdog sticks, and they are fairly long, we won't have to get any closer then georgia befroe we can start cookin. I'll bring the onions ;D

J_T · December 13, 2002, 11:13:30 AM

Here on the Ky Tn border tobacco farmers uese slabs and sawdust to fire darkfired tobacco. Hickery sold to bq pits .Otrerwise you can sell a semi load for about a hunderd bucks to be chiped up.

Ron Wenrich · December 14, 2002, 04:48:38 AM

At one time, Campbell soup was looking for white oak to raise Shitake mushrooms. They couldn't do it on a commerical basis. But, there is money in raising mushrooms for the local trade.

Frank_Pender · December 14, 2002, 07:56:57 AM

I built a jig for the larger/thicker material. it is 8' long, 2' wide and 2' high. I locate the slabs in the unit and when full cut the slabs to length. It is divided so that I can cut 16" material or 32" material I cut most into 32" material as my two Taylor stoves take that length very well. One stove for the house another for the kil. the smaller materil is put into anther jig and when full placed at the trim saw to be made into bundled kindling. Easch bundle is 1.5 cbft and sell for $5. When I do not want to make the kindling I have a Valby chipper similar to wth one shown on the John Deere (same as mine) shown earlier. I sell all of the sawdust and chips to local cridder owners (horse, cattle, dogs) for bedding etc.

Frank_Pender · December 15, 2002, 08:40:07 AM

I failed to mention the jig for the ldarger slabes is fitted with 2 x 6 toobing for the forks on the loader that are hinged at the opposite side of the jig and allows for dumping as if it was a regular bucket attatchment to the loader.

ARKANSAWYER · December 15, 2002, 06:13:49 PM

Yep! the charcoal plant is in full swing but they do not want my slabs. Says that they are to thin and just bark does not make good charcoal. :( I just sell it as fire wood or make a bon fire out of it. The pine and cedar I can sell for $22 a bundel and it pays to haul it as I can haul 9 bundels at a time.
I have looked at the chipper route and think that if I mix in my sawdust and some turkey droppings I could compost some soil. Now I just have to figure out how to keep it on top of the hill.
ARKANSAWYER

Tom · December 15, 2002, 06:49:29 PM

That's what you use a bunch of the slabs for, Arkansawyer. Make a pen to corral your compost. ;D It's biodegradable too and when it goes you just push it into the compost heap and put up some more.

ohsoloco · December 16, 2002, 07:44:26 AM

Speaking of compost, how much sawdust can I put in my garden every year? After a weekend of sawing I fill up a couple 55 gallon drums with sawdust, and I used to dump them in the garden and till it in. I began to worry about seriously messing up the ph in the soil, so I quit doing this. I do use some of the dust when I make batches of compost in the tumbler. The garden is about 30x50...is it safe to dump more sawdust in there (except walnut, of course)? If so, how much?

Tom · December 16, 2002, 07:59:30 AM

I would keep the composting pile separate from the growing plants because decomposition ties up the nitrogen in the soil. Once the compost matures, you can add lime to sweeten it, a little nitrogen maybe, and other nutrients if you wish, and turn it into the garden. As long as you have enough sand in the mix so that it drains well, I wouldn't think that you could get too much compost. Putting a garden in that stuff is like putting a drunk in tub of White lightening. :D

The more humus you add, the more water the soil retains. That's why it's not a good idea to use sawdust, leaves and the like for filling holes in the driveway. Eventually you end up with a mudhole that never dries.

If you have access to Chicken Manure, put some of that in your compost pile. I've friends with Chicken farms that grow gardens that you have to seed and run less they knock you down. Saw a fella that turned his back for a minute and a corn stalk ran up his leg and lifted him off of the ground. He was there all day waiting for his wife to get back from the church meeting to get him down. :-/

dewwood · December 16, 2002, 08:02:11 AM

Putting too much sawdust on your garden will definitely mess up your PH. Especially if you saw a lot of oak, however most wood will change the PH if used in larger quantities. Take a soil test to best determine where you are at with the PH and go from there.

Haytrader · December 16, 2002, 11:13:51 AM

Now Tom, you don't spect us to beleive you, do ya?
:D :D :D

I used to sell a fertilizer additive. Made the stuff work better. We would put on dinner meetings for the prospective customers. I always liked to open the talk with a joke and end with one. After telling them how good this product was and showing them slides to prove it I would tell them there were only two plants you couldn't use it on.........cucumbers and watermelon........cause the vines would get to growin so fast, it would wear holes in the bottom of them draggin them along......... 8) 8) 8)

Geoff · December 16, 2002, 08:48:44 PM

Slabs: Put 'em in the frame that's like the setup mentioned earlier. We call them bales. Wrap them with that nylon strapping which lets you tighten after they are cut. Each bale's about 20 lbs. 40 of them fills the Dodge 4x4 and sells for $60. Keeps the yard clean for sure, but we're trying new ways to make it work faster. When you put out constant production everyday, it gets to be a headache. Gotta keep remembering that the profit's sitting in the pile of slabs sometimes.

Sawdust. Big ole' pile out back. Mix in all the horse s ;D ;Dt from the past winter, and turn it over with the loader every few weeks. Voila! The best dirt you could ask for. Some of the cedar & pine sawdust goes for bedding around the farm.

Geoff · December 16, 2002, 08:52:08 PM

By the way, we use the feed bags to store the sawdust for the bedding. Great way to handle it, and easier to throw than a 45-gal drum.

WV_hillbilly · December 19, 2002, 08:01:54 PM

Hey Guys and gals I have come up with a way to use slabs so that they stay around alot longer .But they look alot better than laying around the yard. I buy the slabs from a farmer that has his lumber sawn by a mobile mill. He used to throw them in a big pile and have a bon fire. I pay $20 for as much as I can load on a pick up. I think it is pretty cheap on my end for what I make on the finished product. This one in the picture just came of the scrollsaw and has no varnish on it.I think you will like it. I make them as a stress relief from daily life. It is a scene of a pack train returning out of the mountains after a sucessful elk hunt.

Take a look Tom and see if I have improved on pics If not let me know. 8)

Hillbilly

Fla._Deadheader · December 19, 2002, 08:11:43 PM

I like that !!! How long does it take and exactly what parts are scroll sawed-sawn ?? Hard to tell from the pic.

WV_hillbilly · December 19, 2002, 08:32:37 PM

Thanks Deadheader the moutain range, horses ,and trees are all scrollsawed out of the slab . That slab is 10 " wide and 40" long and the horses are only 1"x 1 1/2 " in size for reference. I'll take some guesses on what what wood it is from yall. The wood is from northern WV and has a real spicy smell when cut or planed . Around here people also make something from the roots. I Know what it is . The picture doesn't do it justice . It takes me about 3 hours to go from a rough slab to what you see in the pic. It takes me another 1/2 hour to sand and finish it the rest of the way. ;D

Hillbilly

cut2size · December 19, 2002, 09:00:28 PM

Sassafrass

WV_hillbilly · December 19, 2002, 09:11:53 PM

Oh :D We have a winner on the first guess. Boy that didn't take too long. Congrats Cut2size.

Hillbilly

cut2size · December 19, 2002, 09:21:17 PM

Hillbilly,
Where in WV are you? I grew up in WV and just live on the other side of the boarder now. In fact, WV is only about 500 yards away from my back door. I saw some very large sassafras trees near Cheat Lake about 30 years ago. The largest that I have sawn was only 14" in diameter. It is definately worth sawing.
Cut2size

WV_hillbilly · December 20, 2002, 04:02:09 AM

Actually Cut2size I live in Ohio. I can look out my kitchen window and see the Ohio River and Wheeling WV. I was born and raised in Dallas Pike WV . Its off I-70 when you come into WV from PA. I'm only 15 minutes from where I grew up. The price was right for the property so I got married and moved here. I wish I still owned all 3 of the family farms in WV there is alot of great memories there. But you can take the boy out of WV but can't take WV out of the man. ;D If I find some good property I will be a WV resident again.

The guy I buy slabs from has some Sassafrass boards that won't go thru a 20" planer. Those are real nice ones. He build Cabinets out of Sass and you should see them. He won't sell me any of those but I get plenty of other wood from him. In the last year I have bought about 1500 Bd/ft of lumber from him.

Hillbilly

Tom · December 20, 2002, 12:28:45 PM

Sure looks good to me.

Ron Scott · December 20, 2002, 02:50:15 PM

Have you guys been to Richwood West Virginia; the Cranberry BackCountry (now the Cranberry Wilderness); Falls of Hills Creek, Seneca Rocks, etc. ???

Fla._Deadheader · December 20, 2002, 02:54:39 PM

Hillbilly. How much would you take for that piece, before ya mess it up with Varnish?? Or, one similar to it ??

cut2size · December 20, 2002, 06:26:15 PM

I've been to Richwood, Cranberry Glades Wilderness Area, and to Seneca Rocks. The Cranberry River has some great trout fishing. My father used to take us camping in the wilderness for vacations--no camper or other modern conveniences. Cass is another good site to visit. There used to be a gigantic saw mill there (a museum now) There is a picture there of 21 men standing or sitting on a single maple stump. There are flora and fauna in the Cranberry bogs and Seneca Rocks found only in the fartherest north of North America. Richwood is still operating a large mill that I think is owned by GP. It was a wild and wooley lumber town in the early part of the twentieth century.