Slab wood estimate

jbrabson said:

The local saw mill is selling banded bundles of slab hard wood weighing 1500 lbs each-10ft long . . . .anybody know roughly how many cords of wood this is? (face crd?) It's only $15/bundle so I'm thinking its a good deal but am wondering how many bundles I'll need.

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what kind of wood

3700 lbs per cord

jbrabson said:

just to be clear-face or pulp? thx

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128 cu. ft seasoned cord of maple or oak is 3700 lbs per season cord so it would take 2 1/2 to make a cord of wood so 37.50 per cord not bad

jbrabson said:

thx-that's a "pulp wood" cord up here

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we call it cords here but a lot of people call a face cord a rick but they have no clue that it takes 3 ricks to make a cord

If the slab wood is fairly fresh it will probably be 30% moisture and a 30% moisture cord of hardwood would weigh no more than 3000 pounds unless stacked very carefully. So this is a great bargain. If the bark is still on it is less of a bargain and will show up as a lot of ash in your stove and will be a significant fire supressant if it is wet. It will probably dry pretty quickly though because most slabs will be less than 2 inches thick at the widest.

Black Ash Med Yes/Fair Yes No No/Few Excel Minim 2,992 19.1
White Ash High Yes/Fair Yes No No/Few Excel Minim 3,689 23.6
Red Oak High Yes/Poor No No No/Few Excel Fair 3,757 24.0
White Oak High Yes No No No Excel . 4,012 25.7
Beech High Yes/Poor Yes No No/Few Excel Minim 3,757 24.0
Blue Beech High Yes/Poor Yes No No/Few Excel Minim 3,890 26.8
.
White Birch Med Yes/Good Yes No No/Mod Excel Minim 3,179 20.3
Grey Birch Med Yes/Good Yes No No/Mod Poor Minim 3,179 20.3
YellowBirch High Yes/Good Yes No No/Mod Excel Minim 3,689 23.6
Paper Birch Med Yes/Good Yes No No/Mod Excel Minim 3,179 20.3
Black Birch High Yes/Good Yes No No/Mod Excel Minim 3,890 26.8
Hickory High Yes/Fair Bad No No/Mod Excel Good 4,327 27.7
HardMaple High Yes Bad No No Excel . . .
.
Pecan High Yes Yes No No Excel . . .
Dogwood High Yes Yes No No Excel . . .
Red or
Soft Maple Med Yes No No No Good . 2,924 18.7
Cherry Med Yes/Poor Yes No No/Few Good Excel 3,120 20.0
BlackCherry Med Yes/Poor Yes No No/Few Good Excel 2,880 19.9
Walnut Med Yes Yes No No Good . . .
.
White Elm Med Med/Fair No Med No/None Fair Fair 3,052 19.5
AmericanElm Med Med/Fair No Med No/None Fair Fair 3,052 19.5
Sycamore Med Med No Med No Fair . . .
Gum Med Med No Med No Fair . . .
Aspen Low Yes Yes Med No Fair . 2,295 14.7
.
Basswood Low Yes Yes Med No Fair . 2,108 13.5
Cottonwood Low Yes Yes Med No Fair . 2,108 13.5
Chestnut Low Yes Yes Med Yes Poor . . .
Apple High Poor . . Few Med Excel 4,140 26.5
Hemlock Low . . . Many Fair Good 2,482 15.9
.
BlackLocust High Poor . . None Good Minim 3,890 26.8
Sugar Maple High Poor No . Few Good Good 3,757 24.0
Eastern
Hornbeam High . . . . Excel . 4,267 27.3
Hackberry Med . . . . . . 3,247 20.8
Boxelder Low . . . . . . 2,797 17.9
Butternut Low . . . . Poor . 2,100 14.5
.
Softwoods .
.
Yellow Poplar Low Yes Yes Med Yes Poor . . .
Southern
Yellow Pine High/
Low Yes Yes Yes No/Mod Good Good . .
Douglas Fir High Yes Yes Yes No Good . . .
Cypress Med Med Yes Med No Fair . . .
Redwood Med Med Yes Med No Fair . . .
.
White Cedar Med/
Low Yes/Exc Yes Med Some Good Excel 1,913 12.2
Western
Red Cedar Med/
Low Yes/Exc Yes Med Yes/Many Good Excel . .
Eastern
Red Cedar Med/
Low Yes/Exc Yes Med Yes/Many Good Excel . .
Eastern
White Pine Low Med/Exc Yes Med No/Mod Fair Good 2,236 14.3
Western
White Pine Low Med/Exc Yes Med No/Mod Fair Good 2,236 14.3
.
Sugar Pine Low Med/Exc Yes Med No/Mod Fair Good . .
Ponderosa
Pine Low Med/Exc Yes Med No/Mod Fair Good 2,380 15.2
Tamarack Med Yes Yes Med Yes Fair . 3,247 20.8
Larch Med Yes Yes Med Yes Fair . . .
Spruce Low Yes Yes Med Yes Poor . 2,100 14.5
.
Black Spruce Low . . . . . . 2,482 15.9
Jack Pine Low . . . . . . 2,669 17.1
Norway Pine Low . . . . Fair . 2,669 17.1
Pitch Pine Low . . . . Fair . 2,669 17.1
Balsam Fir Low . . . . Poor . 2,236 14.3
Willow Low . . . . Poor . 2,100 14.5
.
Coals . one ton per ton
.
Anthracite High No N/A . No Good Good 2,000 25.4
Bituminous
Hi-Volat Med Med N/A . No Med Fair 2,000 22.0
Bituminous
Lo-Volat Med Yes N/A . No Med Fair 2,000 28.6
Lignite Low Yes N/A . No Poor Poor 2,000 13.8
Charcoal High Yes N/A . No Poor Poor 2,000 26.0

Fuelmaker said:

If the slab wood is fairly fresh it will probably be 30% moisture and a 30% moisture cord of hardwood would weigh no more than 3000 pounds unless stacked very carefully. So this is a great bargain. If the bark is still on it is less of a bargain and will show up as a lot of ash in your stove and will be a significant fire supressant if it is wet. It will probably dry pretty quickly though because most slabs will be less than 2 inches thick at the widest.

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the 2nd to the last number is weight of season wood

jbrabson said:

The bark is still on it, but a lot of the slabs in the bundles are 3 inch thick slabs. They are green and actually I was just planning on picking some of these up and buzzing them up for use next year. They should dry up really quick since they are slabs-I found out too that the cost is $25 per bundle DELIVERED to your house! I still think this is a really good deal, I'll still need full logs for long burns (night time!) but I don't think this is a deal that I could pass up.

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yep they will dry real quick, I'd be buying at that price

Take as much as you can and cut it up immediately to speed up the drying. It may not be available all the time or ever again at that price. Paper mills pay well over $30/ton for paper chip, but to get that, a sawmill has to have a mill reasonably close by and has to maintain a chipper and chip trailers.

I would tend to lean towards 5,000lb a cord. Maple and such. That's the rule of thumb up here. I bought 60,000lbs of tree length rock maple/beech and it stacked to 10 cord. Most of the wood is close to 25% mc when stacked.
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That seems like a hell of a deal, whatever the weight per cord. I'd love to have that stuff for my gassifier. Don't hesitate.

60,000 pounds of logs at 45% moisture is only 33,000 pounds of dry matter, including the bark. Once it dries down to 25% moisture, you will have 11,000 pounds of water still left in your 44,000 pounds of split wood. Subtract out losses from natural decay, bugs, and bark that falls off, and you will probably have about 40,000 pounds of wood in that 10 cords. I suspect you stack your wood much more carefully than most firewood sellers too.

around here i get bundles of hardwood (oak maple cherry ash )from the amish at 10 bucks all day long however many i want ,each bundle is banded up in a rack they make around 8 tenths of a cord once cut and processed .last i visited there must be over 100 bundles just sitting in a huge field waiting for any body with a 10 spot to grab some are better than others,some are broke open by accident and usually they just give them to you to clean up the area for the dozers ., im a snob i always grab up the thick cut red oak ones hehe

lexybird said:

around here i get bundles of hardwood (oak maple cherry ash )from the amish at 10 bucks all day long however many i want ,each bundle is banded up in a rack they make around 8 tenths of a cord once cut and processed .last i visited there must be over 100 bundles just sitting in a huge field waiting for any body with a 10 spot to grab some are better than others,some are broke open by accident and usually they just give them to you to clean up the area for the dozers ., im a snob i always grab up the thick cut red oak ones hehe

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I'm jealous. That would be nice to have in the neighborhood.

If they will deliver for $25 a bundle and they can leave banded keep it this way for processing Make sure you know exactly where the bands are but you can buzz through the whole pile in no time Mark from the center out with a paint dot at 18" or whatever length you want. Then start cutting from the outer edge towards the center of the bundle. You will end up with a some end cuts that are not log length pieces the Wife and I call them "clunkers" but they will still burn just fine. We toss them in a bucket to bring them in and burn them first of the season.

I like slabwood . . . seasons fast and is great for kindling or getting a fire restarted. Around here unfortunately, most of the slabwood is softwood . . . the good news is that you can get lots of it for next to nothing or for free.

I have burned slabwood and at about the price you are talking. Sometimes there are chunks that need to be split and sometimes there is stuff so thin that it's next to a hassle to to deal with. Trying to do the banded bundle cut is not all it's cracked up to be either as many pieces do not run the length of the bundle and can pinch the blade of the saw. Building a portable "cut-off table" will help but it's still a lot of wood to handle. With the table approach you can park your wheel barrow or garden tractor trailer under/near (make a bench to catch the wood) the cut-off (running into either with the saw is not recommended) and sort for your use (i.e. kindling, stay at home and tend the fire thin stuff and stuff that is heavy enough to load for a three or four hour burn or all nighter). This may all sound bad but it's not. The price per cord is good. If you garden the chips from the saw will help build the soil. If purchased early enough in the year slabwood is almost always dried well enough for the most finicky wood stove or boiler. The relatively flat pieces stack well in the stove and most usually the pieces are not too heavy for the misses to handle. Two or three years of burning slab may make you miss the maul though so don't sell it in a summmer garage sale. This link will help you determine what you are getting pound wise with your purchases of slab. http://chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm

I sell 4'x5'x12' bundles of beech and maple slab. They weigh in at 3000lbs+ dry.