# What do you call the rounded cutoffs from a sawmill?



## wahoowad (Apr 25, 2011)

What do you call the part of the tree they cut off of lumber that is half-round and has the bark on one side? Are these considered waste such that a local sawmill might give me couple dozen? I want to make something in my yard with em.


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## Thistle (Apr 25, 2011)

Slabs.  They can be mostly bark,depending on thickness or several inches thick at one end & almost zero at the other according to how much taper the log had.


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## DaveH9 (Apr 25, 2011)

Around here we call those slabs, I used to get bundles from the saw mill delivered. Actually it was a pretty good deal, yielded about a 1/2-3/4 cord for 35$., even in 1992.


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## Thistle (Apr 25, 2011)

Yup I've burned them before. Some years back a local mill had a mixture of Red/White Oak with about 30% Cottonwood slabs in 8ft lengths for $15 fullsized pickup load.Steel bands on each end,lowered in your truck by forklift.Got me through a long winter when snow was too deep for me to get out in the woods.


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## RNLA (Apr 25, 2011)

If I had more room I would go for some of those.


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## NCPABill (Apr 25, 2011)

A ton of handling per cord, but each one is light!


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## Backwoods Savage (Apr 25, 2011)

Slab wood can be good or it can be bad. It depends upon how much wood is on the slab. You also need to be aware that you should not fill the stove fill of them lest you get the stove too hot. With that in mind, you can probably guess that slab wood is great for spring and fall or even daytime when you are spending time by the stove but not for overnight wood.


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## firefighterjake (Apr 25, 2011)

wahoowad said:
			
		

> What do you call the part of the tree they cut off of lumber that is half-round and has the bark on one side? Are these considered waste such that a local sawmill might give me couple dozen? I want to make something in my yard with em.



Slabs . . . and since it seems as though most folks didn't really respond to your question about making something out of the slabs vs. burning the slabs (a topic that has been covered a few times) . . . most sawmills would consider the slabs waste . . . or at least they did at one time. Today, many of these folks have realized that even the waste wood can bring in a bit of money by selling the slabs for fuel, bio-mass, etc. That said, if you are only looking for a few slabs you might get them free or at least pretty darn cheap.

As for making something out of them . . . depends on what you're building . . . and the slabs . . . some may be very thin . . . some may be thick . . . some may be pretty rugged, and some will be quite floppy . . . I wouldn't build anything structural out of them . . . if you're looking to use them for a "decorative" purpose as siding to a very rustic woodshed, fence, etc. they might work.


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## ewdudley (Apr 26, 2011)

wahoowad said:
			
		

> What do you call the part of the tree they cut off of lumber that is half-round and has the bark on one side? Are these considered waste such that a local sawmill might give me couple dozen? I want to make something in my yard with em.



They're considered to be an inferior building material of course.  

Many years ago a neighborhood down by the river near some sawmills earned a reputation for using a lot of slabwood, since presumably many of the residents had to choose between a house built with slabwood or no house at all.  But now 150 years later it's quite nice down through there.


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