# Slab wood seasoning time?



## 4acrefarm (Aug 18, 2010)

I am getting 2 loads of slab wood hopefully soon and I want how long before it's ready? It is a mix of hemlock, ash, and maple, it was debarked, milled, then bundled tightly. It has been sitting all summer or longer. The guy I am buying it from says it will be ready a week after I cut it. I trust him, he is a good ole farm boy,  but what do you all think?


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## firefighterjake (Aug 18, 2010)

I think I would err on the side of caution and give it a few months . . . not a week. That said, slab wood seasons wicked fast (especially the soft wood and especially the thin-slabbed softwood) . . . on the flip side it also tends to burn fast . . . but seeing that you have a boiler with storage this might work out well for you.

For the record being a "good ole farm boy" who may have burned in smoke dragons all his life may not make him an expert on wood burning . . . I see too many experts around my way who still believe the best woodstoves ever made were the 1970s air-tight stoves.


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## Battenkiller (Aug 18, 2010)

4acrefarm said:
			
		

> it was debarked, milled, then bundled tightly. It has been sitting all summer or longer.



If it's been bundled tightly, it won't be a heck of a lot drier inside than a huge tree truck that diameter.  I'd open it up and let the air get to it for a month or two and then cut it to stove length.  Should be good to go soon after that if you don't stack it too tightly.


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## smokinj (Aug 18, 2010)

Rule of thumb would be and this is for evey inch 1  thick 1 year dry time but thats for building(well under 10 percent moisture). I would think 6 months would be good to go for a stove.


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## vvvv (Aug 18, 2010)

4acrefarm said:
			
		

> I am getting 2 loads of slab wood hopefully soon and I want how long before it's ready? It is a mix of hemlock, ash, and maple, it was debarked, milled, then bundled tightly. It has been sitting all summer or longer. The guy I am buying it from says it will be ready a week after I cut it. I trust him, he is a good ole farm boy,  but what do you all think?


& he's burned it also?= i'd trust him. if too dry & especially being a slab with lotta surface area, it might burn too hot & not get adequate combustion air which results in unburnt fuel & maybe even creosote in chimney


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## Battenkiller (Aug 18, 2010)

smokinjay said:
			
		

> Rule of thumb would be and this is for evey inch 1  thick 1 year dry time but thats for building(well under 10 percent moisture). I would think 6 months would be good to go for a stove.



The roughsawn 1" thick white pine I sided my shed with went from just-cut green to 12% MC in only 2 months.  Of course, it's all nailed in place and exposed to constant wind, at least on the outside (although I measured it on the inside).  I doubt it'd be that dry already if it was ash or maple, but I bet that hemlock dries fast once you open up those bundles and spread 'em out a bit to breathe.


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## smokinj (Aug 18, 2010)

Battenkiller said:
			
		

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Its just a thumb rule and should have thrown in hardwoods, because softwoods will be much quicker as we can see....lol


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## Battenkiller (Aug 18, 2010)

smokinjay said:
			
		

> Its just a thumb rule and should have thrown in hardwoods, because softwoods will be much quicker as we can see....lol



That's the real danger in burning pine IMO.  Not that it stays too wet and makes creosote like some claim, but that it can get too dry.  If folks don't give it enough air, it makes too much smoke when you load the stove with it, leading to creosote formation in the flue.  And if you give it too much air, it burns too hot and can ignite any creosote you have in there.  Big chunks of pine are all I'd ever burn in my stove, except maybe for kindling.  Luckily, I won't have to test that since I always have plenty of dense hardwood. ;-)


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## roddy (Aug 18, 2010)

i would think your slab wood should be ready in fairly short order.its rare to get slab over 2 inches thick(the sawyer at the mill would be doing a terrible job on his opening face(cut) and would no doubt hear about it from his boss .no matter how tightly packed the wood is,it would end up like trying to pack a cord of firewood,not tight at all.this is of course because no pieces  would be the same thickness width etc....should have been drying all along....


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## Battenkiller (Aug 18, 2010)

roddy said:
			
		

> i would think your slab wood should be ready in fairly short order.its rare to get slab over 2 inches thick(the sawyer at the mill would be doing a terrible job on his opening face(cut) and would no doubt hear about it from his boss .no matter how tightly packed the wood is,it would end up like trying to pack a cord of firewood,not tight at all.this is of course because no pieces  would be the same thickness width etc....should have been drying all along....



You know, I was thinking of planks, not slabs.  Obviously, slabs cut from the outside of logs would be randomly sized so they wouldn't bundle tightly at all like planks would.  In that case, I think you are correct.  May already be pretty dry when you get them.


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## Backwoods Savage (Aug 18, 2010)

4acrefarm said:
			
		

> I am getting 2 loads of slab wood hopefully soon and I want how long before it's ready? It is a mix of hemlock, ash, and maple, it was debarked, milled, then bundled tightly. It has been sitting all summer or longer. The guy I am buying it from says it will be ready a week after I cut it. I trust him, he is a good ole farm boy,  but what do you all think?



Okay, I'm a good ole farm boy too. I also disagree with the one you met. It will dry much faster than other wood but for a rule of thumb I'd say 1/2 the normal time. That means if you cut the bundles and cut to size, then they will dry....but certainly not in a week's time unless that slab wood sat around unbundled for a year. 

Having the bark off will definitely help but not as much as you might think. So do  yourself a big favor and get that stuff cut as soon as you possibly can. And be careful who you trust, especially when it comes to firewood. I know many folks who believe just like your good ole farm boy and you can't tell them a thing because they know it all. Yet, these are the folks who have problems burning and also end up burning more than they should have needed, simply because their wood was not dry.

Old habits usually die a very slow death if at all. Old ideas are even worse.

Good luck.


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## vvvv (Aug 18, 2010)

Backwoods Savage said:
			
		

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ironic! an experienced woodburner vs the experience of a woodburner that burns the actual wood! lololol....
a load of slabs in the stove is gonna burn nuclear hot & best defense against such is the water in the wood to slow down the burn rate & its consequences


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## smokinj (Aug 18, 2010)

I am getting a lot of milling edges still have bark on one side they are drying very fast in the full sun and the face is facing the sun lots of checking going on. Still will take 6 months.


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## 4acrefarm (Aug 20, 2010)

I got my 1st load of slab wood today. 1 cord mixed oak and cherry and 2 cords mixed soft $150


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## vvvv (Aug 20, 2010)

.cut some be4 u get more & see how it goes. u might end up using a circular saw.


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## sksmass (Aug 20, 2010)

OK, I guess I have to be one to ask...what is slab wood and why would you buy it over cord wood (you know, normal splits)?  Is it cheaper?


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## vvvv (Aug 20, 2010)

lumber mill cuts off the round of the tree to make it square= slabwood. the squared wood is further cut into dimensional lumber. its millwaste so it should be cheaper. tends to burn hot & fast so its tricky. i burned it in the past but it was such a hassle to cut that i built a stove from a 5' cast iron bathtub to acceppt the 4' slabs i had without cutting.


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## sksmass (Aug 20, 2010)

BLIMP said:
			
		

> ...i built a stove from a 5' cast iron bathtub to acceppt the 4' slabs i had without cutting.



You built a stove out of a bathtub?!  I'd love to see a picture of that!


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## oldspark (Aug 20, 2010)

sksmass said:
			
		

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 Now were getting some where! :cheese:  Pictures are a must.


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## vvvv (Aug 20, 2010)

oldspark said:
			
		

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1978 or so= no pix. it was an inverted tub with holes cut for door & exhuast + oversized copper water coil which i had to run hot water full blast into the shower & fill the place with steam+++. design did involve a pipe which brought in secondary air into the drainhole of the tub & into the tub 3' along the top of the burnchamber. this pipe would at some point develop a flame! similar to current 2ndary burn tubes. pursuing that 2ndary flame I insulated the tub & eventually cracked it :long:


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## firefighterjake (Aug 23, 2010)

sksmass said:
			
		

> OK, I guess I have to be one to ask...what is slab wood and why would you buy it over cord wood (you know, normal splits)?  Is it cheaper?



I think Blimp explained it pretty well, but just to put it into easy-to-understand language with actual punctuation and correct spelling . . . 

Slabs are the portion of a tree that is cut off from the log when making lumber at a sawmill. Slabs typically are pretty thin and have a good deal of bark compared to normal firewood. Since the slabs are thin they tend to dry pretty quickly . . . but also burn up pretty quickly. The advantage of buying slabs is the quick seasoning time and cost as this wood is sold pretty inexpensively most of the time -- in fact, at one time, around here you could get slab wood for free as some folks found it to be a nuisance (my own uncle still doesn't burn slab wood that he cuts up in his hobby mill . . . which is good for me and my buddy Joe.)

Around here another disadvantage is that most sawmills are cutting up softwood . . . although in some parts of the country the mills are sawing up hardwood which is usually preferred by most wood burners.


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## Backwoods Savage (Aug 24, 2010)

And another disadvantage is that slab wood does not make good wood for overnight fires. It works great during daytime when not as much heat is needed and if someone is there to tend the fire.


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## smokinj (Aug 24, 2010)

Backwoods Savage said:
			
		

> And another disadvantage is that slab wood does not make good wood for overnight fires. It works great during daytime when not as much heat is needed and if someone is there to tend the fire.



I plan on saving my slab scraps for those real cold day I am home and spike the fire with some hickory slab chunks!


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## Backwoods Savage (Aug 24, 2010)

Probably a few cold beers too. Right Jay?


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## smokinj (Aug 24, 2010)

Backwoods Savage said:
			
		

> Probably a few cold beers too. Right Jay?



Probably a little spike of bourbon.


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