"Huge 'slabs' (flitches) are VERY valuable" True or False?

[Brad_S.]

I visit several woodworking sites as well as an arborist site that have a lot of chain saw millers. All these sites have "gloats" from people who have cut monstrous flitches which they refer to incorrectly as slabs, usually 3-4" thick and as wide as they can saw. They then get ohhh and ahhh responses from others saying words to the effect of "Those are worth a fortune!"

My question is....where? To whom?

I have several such pieces and have yet to find a buyer at any price, much less a premium one. I can sell 4/4-8/4 and 12/4 & 16/4 X 8" stock for legs all day. Everyone appreciates the novelty of the "slabs" but no one actually seems to think of a use for them. Most knowledgeable woodworkers know of George Nakashima and admire his work but few actually want such a piece in their decor, and apparently 'rustic' is not a big look here either.

Anyone here have any advice on selling these wooden monoliths?

[slowzuki]

Talk to architects/interior designers.  They have these magazines showing these counters with "slab" tops and will pitch them strongly to clients.  Once a client buys in, the arch. will make the builder use it and get him names of suppliers if he is not familiar with any.  Chances are, any one builder is not so he will get your name.

[solodan]

This is a large part of my work, sanded brings me about $100/lf for a counter top 24". Table tops bring more, shelves and mantels a bit less.  I think it all depends where you are at. I am in the mountains, the rustic look is in. People sure don't want their ski cabin to look like they are anything ordinary . The old places are real cool I think, Grandpa had some skills but not a whole lot of $, so things were made on site with the materials you had. Now people seem to want to replicate some of that at any price.   I always tell my customers that if they can buy something from the box store than it will be cheaper than I can sell it for. I cut what the box store doesn't.    Niche markets can bring alot of $ to a small operation, if there is a market, but there is not always a market for every niche.

[flip]

In another thread they are talking about the "Lumber yard" show on Moderm Marvels.  One of the wood dealers near the end of the show had a slab of wood, not sure if it was Mohag. or some other exotic.  Any way, he claimed the bare slab was worth $2000 and that it would probably be used as a conference table.  Slab was in the rough.

[Norm]

I think much has to do with your local market for these. I've cut many and have yet to sell but a few. They do look impressive and I get many ooohs and ahhhs when folks see them but finding a use for them is another thing. Next in selling them you have to ship them. That often ups the price by a significant amount. I probably have 20 or so walnut slabs of varying thickness' that have the crotch wood on one end. I'm going to use one to make an office desk for my home office when I get a roundtoit.

[zopi]

It is a niche market....bar tops, counter tops, and boardroom conference tables.

there is some $$ there, but from what I gather, it is hard to make those connections...

I don't know that it is really profitable, (fun tho') as the labor and or equipment involved can be difficult. it's tough to move a 1000lb chunk o wood without a loader..

[Dave Shepard]

There is a guy not far from me that has a warehouse full of slabs, many of them in the 50"+x16' range, mostly exotics as well. He also has another building full of burls and other odd pieces. He has been doing it for probably 20 years. I think it just takes time to get the word out, once you are in the "system", and people know what you have you will get sales. If you have this kind of inventory, you are probably going to be looking at a much larger marketing area, and having to ship stuff long distances. However, as they say, you can't go to the lumber yard for it, and this stuff is even more of a specialty than what most small millers are making. i.e., I make really wide pine flooring at work, but there are hundreds of mills that do that across the country. How many are doing the really high end exotics? If someone wants a bubinga  slab flitch that looks like two sheets of plywood end to end, shipping it across the country is not a concern, finding who is selling it is.


Dave

[metalspinner]

I can only speak as an end user to these types of pieces.  First, I would not buy one for an insanely high price.  There is too much work involved to get to the end product for me to justify the initial high price.   Most people love to see the tables and finished work, often with the "ooo's and ahhh's,"  but they do not want to pony up the $$$$ to acquire the piece.  Now "my" people are middle class types.  The higher end clients are where you need to target, or the craftsmen hired by the that client.

"If you must ask, then you cannot afford."
                              Anonymous wise man.

 


I have made it a habit for teenswinger to cut a couple of slabs out of the big logs for me.  I enjoy looking at the really large boards and in some way think this preserves a special tree's legacy.  I have yet to find someone who shares that fascination with me enough to pay for the extra effort needed to incorporate that piece of wood into their plans.

[flip]

I think it would be immensly cool if someone took a huge slab and was able to use it for flooring.  Nice 5'X12' slab you could walk on.  New way of thinking about "wide" plank flooring.

[StorminN]

A local restaurant opened up recently, and some of their countertops are just redwood flitches a couple of inches thick. They also have rock (granite?) countertops mixed in. When I get back in town, I'll take some pics and upload them.

I talked to another guy that does big timberframe homes, and he was interested in getting some big cedar slabs (flitches).

I think getting in with one of these high-end home builders or architects like slowzuki said is the way to go...

-N.

[Ianab]

The slabs were priced at $1200 for the one the lady is standing beside, the one down on the skid was sold for $1100. A few of the larger ones were  sold for $1400. They were cut to 4 1/2 in thick.
The slaber is a new release from the LUCAS factory and has a max. cut of 9.5 ft. Great machine, It went like a dream and the accuracy was amazing.

Thats what the slabs actually sold for at the show, straight off the mill. OK thats pretty special wood, but locally large slabs like that sell for about 5X what sawn boards would be worth.

It is a specialist market for sure, but you cant buy pieces of wood like that just anyplace. It may also be a market that is more regional. Large slabs of wood are available here, so they commonly get used in furniture, bars and picnic tables etc. If they were really rare, no one would think of using them.

BTW the term 'slabs' seems to be an Aussie / NZ term, no one here uses the term 'flitch'. As the Peterson and Lucas 'slabbers' come from this part of the world I think thats where the term comes from.

Cheers

Ian

[zopi]

I think it would be immensly cool if someone took a huge slab and was able to use it for flooring.  Nice 5'X12' slab you could walk on.  New way of thinking about "wide" plank flooring.

I thought of doing that on a different scale...take trunk long flitches with branches, knots bullets..etc, still in, bed them on the floor and inlay arond them....kind of a "whole tree" look..you could conceivably put an entire tree in one room..

but it'd be tough to get a smooth floor that way...maybe in a cabin where it doesn't matter...

have fun sweeping up..

[ohsoloco]

I think Metalspinner hit the nail on the head when he said you either have to produce something from the flitches, or know a craftsman that has high end clients.  

Personally, sawing flitches is one of the reasons I got a sawmill.  You can go anywhere and buy boards.  I've been slowly making furniture from about 800 bd. ft. of walnut that I have stacked in my shop.  Out of that, I only had a handfull of live edge boards that I cut.  I'm now just about out   but I have over 600 bd. ft. of boards.  It's just the type of furniture I prefer to build, but I don't limit myself to it. I have a few walnut logs that I need to cut soon, and I think most of it will be live edge.  

Even though I know they're technically flitches, I still find myself calling them slabs....as in, "that's a big slab of wood"  

[beenthere]

.....................
Anyone here have any advice on selling these wooden monoliths?

Probably want to know where the market is before producing them....
I think the FF forumites have a pretty good idea when talking about slabs, if they are the first cut off the saw (one sawn face)  or if they are a slab with two faces parallel that are (sometimes, somewheres, often, always) called flitches. 

There are those talented people scattered around who do wonders with 'slab' flitches, and wish I had the foresight to do it too.    I'm too cheap to pay the big bucks that I've seen them priced at in stores.

[Fla._Deadheader]

 Since I've not had to work so hard, I've had time to think back on things.

  One thing I knew, and never paid much attention to, is the fact that people that make BIG $$$$ with selling products, attend Shows, whether it be Boat shows (Jewelry), Woodworking shows, National Rodeos (Sign Making), Architectural shows (Kitchens, furniture), or whatever you want to sell.  Usually, you have to spend it to make it.

  When we stopped being screwed to get rid of the Sinker Logs, and built the mill, I could picture Big table SLABS. NEVER heard the term Flitch. It took us a while to establish a market. I tried local stuff, Cabinet shops, builders. Didn't have time and wardrobe to access Architects 

  Put ads in the newspaper. Kept the ad running for 3 week spurts. Stop for 3 weeks, run another 3 weeks. Finally, started selling table slabs. Kept upping the price per bd/ft, and found people were figuring price per bd/ft and not liking the comparison of bd/ft per slab, against bd/ft for lumber.

  Started pricing by the PIECE. This one X $$$, that one  X $$$$. How many bd/ft   Don't know and don't care. I'm selling 1 PIECE.

  That started to get interesting, because they quit asking about bd/ft. I woundn't talk about bd/ft, just THIS PIECE.

  We sold to a Broker. He was handy and we picked up a nice check on our way home from the camp. Dealing with him, is what got My Son, ED, thinking. He would double talk the Broker, JUST LIKE HE WAS DOING TO US.  Don't like that one piece, how about this one. Broker would say, How much if I take both???  Ed would figure in his head, and give a price. Broker says, That's the same price    ED, YUP, same pieces.  Take 'em or we leave, and we would start putting them on the trailer, or in the truck. NEVER got to reload the pieces. 

  Furniture Builders started calling with questions. I would eventually stop answering, and tell them, you KNOW what we have, right   Well, yeah.  Fine. Drive here and look. Phone ties us both up and wastes time.

  We never had enough slabs after this. STILL could sell 100 if Ed had 'em, no problem. Ya gotta kick the bushes and see what runs out, to market this stuff.

  To quote Tom, 3 steps to selling is , MARKETING, MARKETING, MARKETING .

  I had, and still have, visions of carved table slabs. A CNC Router table and knowing how to draw, and I believe I could put a hurtin on the market. Just have to put a glass top on the table to get a smooth surface. THAT requires a perfect flat face, and I'm not set up for that, YET.

  I have a few people on the forum that would like to buy a slab here or there, from the stuff I mill down here. Problem is, THIS stuff puts USA lumber weight, to shame. I sawed some wide Table slabs for Fred. He doesn't ask about table slabs anymore. Too tough to handle. 

[solodan]

 
There is too much work involved to get to the end product for me to justify the initial high price.   Most people love to see the tables and finished work, often with the "ooo's and ahhh's,"  but they do not want to pony up the $$$$ to acquire the piece. 

That is how I ended up with an Alaskan in the first place. I had a vision of what I wanted to create, and buying a big saw and a chainsawmill was about the same $ I saw big slabs going for. Then I bought the Lucas and the slabber later on.   If I did not produced finished pieces than I don't know how many I could sell. I would actually prefer to just saw the slabs and have someone else build with them, but that is the rareity in the case of these large slabs.The slabs themself are not rare, but the builders who build with them. Not everyone has the eye or the mindset for this type of work. I know guys that are great builders but the thought of building with something irregular scares them off. I do not think there are alot of people like Metalspinner out there, that is people that build beautiful stuff from the slabs that others have sawn. Maybe it is just a matter of time before Metalspinner gets his own mill. FDH and Ed found these customers though. I would love to have the problem of having too much stock on my hands, I usually tell my customers that it will be 3 to 6 months for there pieces. I  look for the right piece, then I saw it, and many times force dry it to a workable mc. It depends on what they are looking for, and most of the time they don't really know, so if the pieces check we deal with it appropriately and call it character      And though I already had a hunch, Tom reinforced it with his quote "3 steps to selling is , MARKETING, MARKETING, MARKETING . " Thank you Tom.

[Ron Wenrich]

http://www.talaricohardwoods.com/index.html

This guy's right down the road from me and I've never been to his mill.   I think I put it off due to the stuff I might find there and think I've been doing it wrong.   

He sells slabs.  Supposedly he's sold some for 5 figures, and you can see why.  But, his market is a lot larger than what most guys think about.  Some of his stuff sits in homes in Beverly Hills.  He markets to the high end.  He also pays more for logs than some of us have in our mills.  So, its all kind of relative.

Here's an idea of what some guys are making:

http://www.dumonds.com/slab_furniture_gallery.htm

I think that's a spot of drool on my chin.   

[Fla._Deadheader]

 I've been to the Talarico Website. He buys from other countries. We have that stuff locally. 

  Hey Brad. Here's a 1 piece "slab".



  How much do you think this would fetch on the open market  

[Part_Timer]

My tailmans dad has a Lucas with a slabber on it.  He started out selling lumber and ended up selling flitches and slabs because he fell into the market.
 
He lives in NC and started out by setting up at roadside stands.  He pulls up with the trailer, stands the slabs up on end leaning against the trailer and spends a couple of hours every other Saturday or Sunday selling.

Now he is a regular at a roadside fleemarket.  The people who buy from him are mostly people who are building log cabins for a living or are making rustic furniture for a living.  They place an order and meet him at the market on a preset date.

He sells a 28"x 8' or 10'x2 1/2" slab for between $250-$450 depending on what it is.  Says that if you average the year out he is making $1000-$1500 per month.  Not to bad a way to spend retirement. 

[Ianab]

This is a table that a local guy makes and sells. It's macrocarpa cypress so it's durable outside, and the thickness of the slab means it will last for YEARS.

When you look at the slab it would be hard to saw a clear board out of the log - too many big knots. But you can slab it and make $1500 tables from it  In fact the wilder the grain the more it's worth, a bit of epoxy to fill any bug holes and it's good to go.



Cheers

Ian