What the heck is slabwood?

[jmhpsu93]

I have an offer for firewood delivery that involves slabwood. Is this stuff better or worse (or neither) than regular C/S/D firewood? Thanks!

 

[daryl]

slabwood is the bark edge of a log. If it is debarked it is not to bad to burn I would compare it to pallet wood. it is almost all sapwood so it does not burn as long. It also burns hot and quick so you can overfire a stove fairly quickly if you do not keep an eye on it.

 

[Hanko]

when they run a log through the saw at the mill the first pieces that come off are the out sides to make the log square. Those are refered to as mill ends. They are cheap, and if you live close to a saw mill are easy to come by. Mostly pine in Michigan here. A guy was advertising on CL for full cords at $60. Id check it out first if your thinking about going that way. Any by the way they are usually green cause they dont sit around much

 

[jmhpsu93]

How would you stack it? Is it like putting together a jigsaw puzzle?

 

[simple1]

It actually stacks great, as most pieces have a flat side, and a rounded side, but they are usually only 1-2" thick at the center, and about 8" wide. The frustrating thing is that the pieces are so small, that it takes quite a bit longer to stack. I get a load (about 12 face cord) for $300 about every other year. It is perfect to use during the shoulder season as well as kindling.

 

[jebatty]

Often available/delivered in 8' lengths, so it needs to be cut to stove length pieces. I generate my own slabwood from small scale sawmill operation. All of it goes to my own stove or gasification boiler.

 

[geoxman]

Slab wood in my neck of the woods goes for $15 to $20 for a full pick up load and I burn some every year.

 

[firefighterjake]

I think folks pretty much explained that slabwood is mostly bark with a little bit of the "meat" of the tree that typically comes about in a milling operation when the sawmill operator cuts off the bark in an effort to make dimensional lumber.

Pros:
-- Usually cheaper
-- Seasons pretty fast
-- Great for starting a fire or for use in the shoulder season

Cons
-- Burns fast and hot -- not something you want to stuff your firebox full of . . . and not something you will load and then get a nice 6 hour burn
-- Around here slabwood tends to mostly be softwood vs. hardwood . . . but this largely depends on the mill and what they're doing with the wood

I typically like to pick up some slabwood (although I refuse to pay for it) since I use some for kindling and some for starting the fire . . . and as mentioned some is used for the shoulder season fires.

 

[Chargerman]

Mills around here practically had to give the stuff away for the delivery charge. There are a lot of hardwood mills in our area so this stuff is easy to get.

 

[Cowboy Billy]

Here are some slabs I was cutting up earlier this year. I was just about done with the pile so there weren't many left. Since I cut them myself they are thicker than what you would get from a mill. Since my other projects have more wood down than I can use I just left the slabs thicker as I know I am going to use them for firewood.

Its not a real good picture but it will give you an idea. There are some slabs on the saw buck and more on the pile if you look under the chainsaw bar.

Billy

 

[ANeat]

Could be something like this, varies from paper thin to pretty thick depending on the logs.

 

[Flatbedford]

This first pass with the mill will make a slab.

Here's a days worth of slab wood cut, split, and on it's way to be stacked.

 

[SKIN052]

I really like the slab wood. Mill in town sells it for $30 a full cord. Take a while to cut up and stack but dried up in 2 months. Great kindling and shoulder season wood. We get all spruce.