"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

[Part_Timer]

 

Now that is a picnic table. 

[John Bartley]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but ... on the Talarico website is a "Dolmar" saw that appears to be made for cutting very wide boards. I can't find anything on the web about it .... anybody know anything about it, or have any links to info about it?

cheers and thankyou

[Brad_S.]

Here is some reading on the Dolmar for you John.
http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,27143.0.html

Wow, thanks for all the input. I've been somewhat afraid to advertise these too aggresively for fear of, well, success. I don't want to create a monster I can't feed. 

[Timburr]

John B
Others have tried to seek similar info. on the "Dolmar", but with little avail.   However, a small glimmer of hope does break the horizon, when a fellow British brother contacted Talarico and his reply can be found on this OLD FORUM THREAD.

[John Bartley]

Thank you again for the info guys !!

That's a very effective looking rig.

cheers

[DR_Buck]

now, back to the 'slabs'.........................


I'll let you all know how I make out in March.   I have 15 White Oak slabs from the tree GA Boy, Dan Shade and I took from the Kennedy estate in 2006 (http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,18503.0.html)  and (http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,21195.0.html).  Most are 34" and up wide by 7 ft long.    They've been air drying for quite some time now and are going in the kiln in the next few days.   March 14-16  I have a couple booths reserved at the Wood Working show in Chantilly VA (thewoodworkingshows.com.  My main objective is to market the portable milling business to local woodworkers (note:  I make most of my milling money from them).  I believe the 3 day attendance is over 5 thousand.   Secondary goal is to liquidate some of my accumulated lumber, including these large slabs.

[metalspinner]

Quote from: flip on Today at 12:56:47 PM
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...

Member Iain has many pics in his gallery of a floor he made this way.  His work really is beautiful. 

A "sky bridge" joining a loft of some kind would be really cool with a huge live edge slab.

[submarinesailor]

Dave,

IF THINGS GO ANY WHERE NEAR RIGHT, I plan on attending Friday morning.  Do you know what time the doors open to the public.

Bruce

[DR_Buck]

Bruce,

I haven't seen the detailed schedule yet.  But if like previous years, it opens to the general public at noon.   If you sign up for the pay seminars that are held in the morning, they let you in.

Update : Friday, March 14 / Noon - 7pm
              Saturday, March 15 / 10am - 6pm
              Sunday, March 16 / 10am - 4pm

[WIwoodworker]

Brad...The key to selling anything unusual is to market it to people in a higher end setting. Some of my clients make hand crafted hardwood floors and pay me above market value for wide or highly figured wood to make their floors more distinctive. A frind just made a floor that included pieces made from 23" wide Walnut I sold him.  I just got a call from one the other day that wants two 8/4 by at least 24" to 30" wide elm flitches up to 10' long to make a table for a client. I could have helped him if he wanted walnut or maple but not elm.

Price to his client for the table??? Between $10k and $15k. Out of my league for sure but there are people who have no problem writing the checks. You just have to find them.

A previous poster has it right about pricing...I find it much easier to market large and unusual items priced by the piece rather than the bf. With burls I used to price by the pound but found it much easier to sell when priced by the piece. Hope this is helpful.

[Ironwood]

Brad S.

 These are at least 400lbs each and I used a crane to  sling them and swing them in place.

 All I can say is it costs a boat load of money to market to the higher end, I am about to write a check for a show in Manhattan that would make your head spin, that does't include all the time or opportunity cost. This all looks really profitable until you add in the "losers" which invariably become part of the mix. Some logs are home runs and others.............well, lets just say I have a fair bit of money rotting up in my field. At some level you are playing averages. I do it in a small enough scale to hopefully limit my loses.


         Ironwood

[Dan_Shade]

I think Reid hit on an important point, which shows why those big and wide boards cost so much:

• it's very difficult to saw and handle those very wide and thick boards/slabs/flitches
• it's very difficult to dry the very wide and thick boards/slabs/flitches where they end up flat and not twisted and/or busted up
• it takes a bit of creative marketing and salesmanship to move the product

opportunity cost is something that many people have a hard time grasping and understanding, but it's real, and it does impact things.  from sawing alone, I know I can often saw an entire "smaller" log in the time it takes me to cut one flitch with a chainsaw mill.  and then you need a crane or forklift to move a lot of the big stuff.  it all adds up.

[pauldumond]

Do you sell your large slabs?  What do they cost?

Regards,

Paul

[metalspinner]

Welcome aboard, Paul!

Thanks for pulling this thread up.  I enjoyed reading it again.   Makes me want to get out to the shop and make something.

[DR_Buck]

now, back to the 'slabs'.........................


I'll let you all know how I make out in March.   I have 15 White Oak slabs from the tree GA Boy, Dan Shade and I took from the Kennedy estate in 2006 (http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,18503.0.html)  and (http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,21195.0.html).  Most are 34" and up wide by 7 ft long.    They've been air drying for quite some time now and are going in the kiln in the next few days.   March 14-16  I have a couple booths reserved at the Wood Working show in Chantilly VA (thewoodworkingshows.com.  My main objective is to market the portable milling business to local woodworkers (note:  I make most of my milling money from them).  I believe the 3 day attendance is over 5 thousand.   Secondary goal is to liquidate some of my accumulated lumber, including these large slabs.

FDH.....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 wouldn't talk about bd/ft, just THIS PIECE.

Selling by the piece is just what I've done with the white oak slabs.   I've sold 13 so far.  Only sold 2 at last years Woodworking show, but had a few follow-up calls that sold 2 more.  Then I advertised them locally as "bar tops" and had a run on them.   Average income has been around $350 for a 3 inch thick 7' long  x ~ 26"  wide piece.

Also, at the woodworking show, I priced ALL of by boards by the piece.   Nothing was sold by the board foot.   Prior to the show I calculated the "starting price" using a bdft figure then added or subtracted based on how good or bad it looked to come up the "by the piece" price.   It worked out great.  No haggling over if it was 2.8 or 3 bf.    Just pay what the sticker says.    This method works for the box stores and retail outlets and it works for me.
Most of the kiln dried stuff stacked in my insulated sea container is priced by the board so when customers stop by, thats the price. 

[Dana]

Welcome back Paul. I havent seen any post from you in a long time. Are you still building executive furniture with slabs?

[Don_Papenburg]

Hey Norm , You looking in on this thread?  How wide are your slabflitchboards?  Would you sell to someone from a state with a lot of gov'ners in the pen or fixen to get in one? 
  I may be short on wide boards for cabinet panels.   

  At a hardwood suplier  I was looking at his "1x8" walnut boards"   They werer 1x4s glued together without regard for grain match or color variation.    They are frekin 1x8s  you don't have to glue up tooth picks to make em . 
 
 Any way you guys should be sell ing  wide boards to cabinet shops as I have seen a lot of mismatched glueups in the raised panels  coming out of those places.  a lot looks like it was made from slabwood that should have been heating a house .

[Norm]

Morning Don. Kind of forgot about this thread but funny as I had an  old friend of mine asking for a live edge piece to make a table out of. If you get bored put on some ice skates and we'll dig through my junk piles of wood to see if I have anything you can use.

[WILDSAWMILL]

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.

(Image hidden from quote, click to view.)

Cheers

Ian

so what kind of finish wood you use on a project like this
do you finish the under side allso
how dry should the slab be before appling finish

[tyb525]

Whenever I cut a log with my chainsaw mill I always try to get a flitch/slab/live edge board from it. I just love the looks of them, and I always tell myself what a beautiful tabletop, etc it would make. If it doesn't work out for whatever reason, I can always cut the bark off and then it's just like a regular wide board.

[Don_Papenburg]

Norm, What kind of widths do you have ? And lengths ?A  swag will on sizes ,I don't know what I need yet .         I would think that you had them all cataloged     

[Norm]

I do Don...as one big pile.

Most are 8' with the wide ones being walnut with some other varieties mixed in. When I moved my shop I just made a mess by putting the wood on pallets and stacking them. I keep saying I'm going to sort them but that darn ambition keeps getting in my way.

[Part_Timer]

I think it is funny that this thread showed up again.  I have been trying to work out in my head how to store and show slabs.  We might be purchasing 3 acers behind the house this summer, if this works out I will be building a sawmill shed as well as a kiln and lumber storage.

I was thinking of a way to stack and sticker the slabs under a pair of I beams with a chainfall on each end of the slab pile.  This way I could sling part of the stack raise it up and slide the slab I want out of the stack with a mold cart.  I still have a few details to work out.  Ya know like getting the land purchased but hay a guy can dream can't he.

[DR_Buck]

I have been trying to work out in my head how to store and show slabs.

Here is what I came up with for "showing slabs".  I built these stands using 8x8 Poplar drilled to hold 1/2" rebar 4" apart.  The slabs stand up between the vertical rebar for easy viewing with falling over.   For the large (5 ft wide) slab iin the middle I used 3/4" rebar.    When I store then at home, they stand (lean) vertical against the wall of my insulated storage container.

[Part_Timer]

That's a good idea.  I bet that works great for the shows.

[Don_Papenburg]

I know about ambition getting in the way .  I think he is related to murphy

[urbanlumberinc]

There's a market out there for slabs, you've just got to go looking for it. 

[Smokey]

WOW

I just had to bump this topic up, I plan on building a sawmill just to build a house with slab(flitch) furniture like some that are in these posts.

A guy can dream can't he

Smokey

[Ianab]

A guy can dream can't he ?

Dont dream it, do it.

Big slabs like that can be cut with an "Alaskan" type chainsaw mill. Sure it will take you all day to slice up a big butt log or crotch, but you end up with something that you just cant go and buy from a normal timber supplier.

The slabs (or flitches) you saw from one big log could pay for the big chainsaw you need to cut them, + plus a days sweat and a can of gas, it's still a good deal.

I have some nice live edge slab in the shed, well air dried now, and overdue to be made into furniture. I could buy ones like them locally, for several hundred $$, but the Big Kahuna is a 16ft x 36" x 3" piece of cypress, that will make 2 tables. Try and buy one of those at any retail place?  They will never have seen a piece of wood like that, especially not walnut or cypress.

 Want to put a value on this slab?


It's in sections, but it's 4" slice from a small Kauri Pine.

Ian

[sigidi]

Interesting read regarding slab sales over there. For clarification purposes we call 'em slabs down here when they have two flat faces and both edges are natural or live and when they have one flat face and the round of the log as the other face, then we call 'em flitches.

I regularly sell slabs for $2,000 - $3,000 per cubic metre or per 424 bft I sell 'em so often that I don't have any I've done slabbing jobs on a busy road and used a lumber crayon to write a sign on the first two slabs off the log, chucked 'em up along the road and sold slabs straight off the log

After cutting this one;



it was around 800lb per stick, took 45 min to cut and 15 min to stack on the 'cut pile', pushed out around 80lb of sawdust to cut it. She's almost 4' wide the full length, around 15' long and cut at 2.5" thick. I did some ringing around to guys who sold this kind of thing in the city out of 'timber supply places' and came to a figure of around $1,000AU per stick pretty cool for one hours work if you can get enough of it hey?