Buying Sawmill Slabs For Firewood – Is it Worth it?

Foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey it's Brock here from Rock Hill Farms And today we're going to take a look at A different way of getting firewood So this is a bundle of slab wood which Is a byproduct of a sawmill operation It's basically the outside pieces that They don't have a use for And a lot of times you can get this for Little to nothing I paid ten dollars for This bundle right here that seems like a Lot of wood for ten dollars but what's Going to tell if that's worth it or not Is how long does it take to break that Down into a usable Product and how much firewood do you get From it so I'm guessing this is fifty Dollars of firewood and I can do it in a Couple hours but we're gonna find out so First thing I gotta decide is how I want To do it I had initially thought that Since they banned this up I could just Come in 16 inches and cut through the Whole pile at least a couple times but I Don't think that's very practical really Because the ends aren't Met meeting up With each other Every time so You're not going to get the same 16 Inches And it would be hard to cut through that

You could only make a couple cuts before You're over to your banding and it all Comes loose Then I thought about taking it and Setting it next to the shop and using a Chop saw miter saw And that might work well I don't know But I think what I'm going to try today is Bundling it up into my grapple matching Up the ends and cutting it while it's Being held by the grapple so let's give It a try Thank you Foreign [Music] Thank you I just realized that half of what I was Doing wasn't in the frame Whoops So I tried a couple of different ways to Cut this up and I think it would just be A matter of trial and error because I Know the way I'm doing it is not the Best way [Music] Felt pretty efficient cutting that up With it in the grapple but I'm having a Hard time getting A good pile of it in the grapple that's Not falling all over the place because Some of the pieces are really top heavy On one end and I think I'm just gonna pick them up and

Load them in there by hand but then Clamp down on them to cut This is the point when my day got a lot Better because my grandson came out to Show me how it's done Yeah we're the where the log is Irregular widths It'll break in the middle Or it'll be really heavy on the middle And those can't be cut this way now that I'm done and I'm looking back at it I Kind of think the first mistake was Unbundling the wood the best bet in my Mind is probably to cut it while it's Still held tight and cut the whole stack At once but I didn't get a chance to try That this time Foreign [Music] You ready to be a helper This is when it's good to have a Five-year-old grandson Who Wants To Be A Firewood helper I botched that he is six years old Which is like a 16 difference from five It's kind of mistake you don't want to Make how many how much wood can a Six-year-old move Can you handle these pieces yeah the Biggest problem with cutting this up is Keeping your chain out of the dirt When dealing with all the little pieces Down on the ground And I did not find a great solution for

That but if I'm wondering if the best Solution is to not use a chainsaw at all I could have set up my miter saw and cut All this on a miter saw probably would Have been slower but Would have been less hassle [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Foreign [Music] Foreign I've filled my basket which is one third Of a cord And This Is Not Great firewood I'd be proud To sell which is why I said I think I Have fifty dollars worth is normally be About 65 but this is kind of a regular Length and there's more bark in it so Even after this dries I'm going to say This is 50 worth And then I've got some more down here on The ground this is all chunks that are Too big I've got it cut to length This big pile here All of this is cut to length but it Still needs to be put on the splitter so Is this worth it I'm I don't like this Compared to splitting regular firewood On a splitter where you you get it down

To rounds with a lot fewer cuts and then You're running the splitter I like that A lot better and I like the finished Firewood better The problem here is Like this little stuff I have that's Left I'd have to cut it one little bitty Pieces at a time because You can't cut it lying on the ground so It's a good learning experience but I Don't think I will buy any more of this Slab wood to turn into firewood Now if we were having a bonfire like we Have a big firing out there where we can Use these big pieces but we can also use Pieces four foot long where I just had To cut that bundle in half I think this would be great firewood for A bonfire But if you want it down to 16 inches for Your wood stove I wouldn't buy slab wood just my Thoughts on it anyway I appreciate you Taking time to watch the video I'll put Links on the screen to a couple more of Our videos And I'll see you next time