Cutting slabs for firewood

[cutterboy]

Hi all. Yesterday I finished sawing some ash logs. This morning I cut up the slabs. 


 

 
The tractor bucket can hold half the slabs and take them into the barn.


 

 

 

 
Then back for the rest of the slabs which makes a nice little stack for the winter of 2021-2022. I will add to this stack as I saw more hardwood logs.


 

 
Now the slab rack is ready for more.


 
   All the best.....Cutter

[hedgerow]

Those slabs make some nice firewood. Its been just too hot "heat index has been around 100" to do any firewood around here. I do need to get back to it. I am way behind. 

[cutterboy]

Those slabs make some nice firewood. Its been just too hot "heat index has been around 100" to do any firewood around here. I do need to get back to it. I am way behind.

It has been hot here too, and very humid. All my heavy outside work is done in the morning. I'm out by 5:30 and done by noon....sometimes done by 9:30.

[Banjo picker]

I cut the slabs on the rack right off the mill.  Chunk them in the Kukota rtv and dump them at the edge of the yard....then let the Mississippi heat do their thing.  They will burn this winter.  I do bust some of the bigger ones.  I keep 1/2 cord covered.  Don't use too much wood in this part of the world.  Banjo

[Magicman]

Fact is I seldom saw for myself and have very few slabs, but I always split them into 2-3 sticks for easier handling. 

[moodnacreek]

Take a long time to fill the wood shed with slab wood. I do about half slab wood and half chunk [shorts from the processor] mostly locust. The rest of the slabwood gets sold. I run it through an old Cornell slabwood saw, one of the best machines I ever bought.

[ButchC]

Thats some dandy looking slab! We have lots of Amish mills working here and that combined with the power company on a full fledged assault on any trees near the lines means CHEAP wood is in abundance . I have been getting loads of chunked up slab at the mills dirt cheap. I cut the slab from my own mill on an old buzz saw and it drops on an elevator and goes in the shed. At my age half the day is spent figuring out how to get some work done without bending over,LOL

[Wood Shed]

Looks like you have a sturdy helper there, gotta have a loader tractor.  Slab wood don't last long in my furnace.

[cutterboy]

Today it was red maple.


 

 

 

 


Now that stack is looking better.

All the best.....Cutter

[cutterboy]

Yesterday it was a mix of maple and birch.


 

 

 
The 2nd row is started. I hope the next slabs will be red oak. I have been wanting to log red oak all summer but my plans keep getting changed.

[Brad_S.]

What keeps the vertical uprights from splaying out? That's the problem my head with one that I tried to build one time.

[ReggieT]

Those slabs make some nice firewood. Its been just too hot "heat index has been around 100" to do any firewood around here. I do need to get back to it. I am way behind.

Same here, been more on my mind than anything! :P
Yet, we're supposed to get a cold spell starting Sunday night down here.
If so, I'll be glued into some white oak rounds that's been down about 2 yrs!!!

[cutterboy]

What keeps the vertical uprights from splaying out? That's the problem my head with one that I tried to build one time.

Brad, sorry I'm so slow to respond. I've been very busy with things I wasn't expecting to do plus the things I was expecting to do. Who said things slow down after 70? He lies!
Anyway, those uprights are screwed into the 4x4s which are the base of the slab rack. Long screws and 4 or 5 of them in each upright. Then there is a 1x4" board that runs along the outside of the uprights at their base screwed in with long screws. Those screws are long enough to go through the uprights and into the 4x4s. That holds them pretty tight until the wood starts to rot and then they loosen up. My first rack lasted five years. The one I'm using now is in it's third year.



 

 

[cutterboy]

Today it was red oak.


 

 

 

 
That 2nd row is looking better now. I'm not sure what hardwood I'll be sawing next but I have 20 white pine logs ready to saw. That will be my next sawing project. I usually give my pine slabs away to a maple syrup maker in town but I'm thinking of cutting them up and selling them as camp wood next summer. I haven't decided yet.