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Bzzzzzt
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# Posted: 2 May 2014 07:33pm
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I'm going to jump to the conclusion that everyone here knows what "first cuts" lumber is. I was driving to the cabin today and drove past a lumber mill and they had a few piles of those sitting out front. I think they would look cool if used as siding but I was wondering what you could use to treat them to prevent rotting? I wouldn't be using them for any structure, just for asthetics. I bet they could be had cheap.
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 2 May 2014 09:45pm - Edited by: MtnDon
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I've seen some around us in the mtns use them for fence boards. Sooner or later the bark comes loose. Some insects love to dig in under the bark when they are still green. Soaking in a trough of borate solution can help, but if it rains a lot the borate will eventually leach out in the rain.
Solubor is one product. I think there are cheaper substitutes but I can't remember the name.
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Bzzzzzt
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# Posted: 2 May 2014 10:16pm
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Thanks, Don.
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turkeyhunter
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# Posted: 2 May 2014 10:46pm
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Quoting: MtnDon I think there are cheaper substitutes but I can't remember the name.
burnt motor oil and diesel mixed together is what the old timers use in a pump up sprayer....kills all the bugs...and I seen this use on ole log and board barns...it works
reusing this burnt motor oil is so GREEN
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Sarg68
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# Posted: 3 May 2014 06:41am
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Personally I wouldn't do it because its pulp wood and its just going to cause you more work in the long run. There's a reason the lumber mill doesn't use it and its because its only good for fire wood. If I was you I would go back and get it and burn it in the stove this year. Good Luck! Sarg
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Don_P
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# Posted: 3 May 2014 10:51pm
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The majority of wood we now buy is sapwood.
I've been impatiently waiting for the right conditions to burn a pile of slabwood I just produced. The black turpentine beetles are having a party in the pile and I'd like to invite them to a roast before they breed another generation under the bark.
if you are going to make siding out of it I would debark it immediately to remove the prime food source in the inner bark and promote drying. Solubor is the cheap borate alternative to Timbor. BoraCare is the premium form of borate, it is simply timbor or solubor and ethylene glycol (yup, anti-freeze) to slow drying and allow the borate to penetrate more deeply. Borate is low toxicity and kills wood eating insects and inhibit rot fungi. To prevent leaching, after the borate treated wood has thorougly dried, apply a water repellant coating.
I can attest to oil working well at killing/preventing insects but it is also toxic to us and the environment. It also increases the flammability of the building... not to mention you don't want to lean against the building for a good long while.
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Malamute
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# Posted: 6 May 2014 02:03pm - Edited by: Malamute
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They are called slabs here. They aren't necessarily bad quality wood, anything that's milled into lumber or even cabin logs cut to square them up leave slabs.
I've used them to side outbuildings. They work fine. Treat them with the same stuff you would logs in your area. Here, many use Messmers UV Plus. I don't treat them with anything, preferring to let them age naturally, they haven't ever rotted, just aged nicely most of the time (theres many 100 year old cabins still standing in the area). The slabs here are all from dead standing trees, the same source for cabin logs in this area. I chink them with Log Jam. Using a backer rod helps keep the chinking from pulling away. I screw them on with 2 1/2" torx screws as close to the edges as I can manage. Use roofing felt or tyvek under them. If you keep the major cracks on the lower half as its on the wall, they wont accumulate water ion them. Best to fill the cracks on the upper side of the slabs, just like logs. I use Log builder for that.
I'd rather use slabs for siding than anything I've seen commercially available, but it suits my style preference. If you want to see the ultimate in slab use, go to Yellowstone Traditions website, many of the houses they build are frame with slabs, inside and out. If you understand log construction and corners, you'll be able to spot many of the slabbed structures. They (Y-T)are the opposite of cheap construction.
I burn primarily slab wood. In my small cabin, it isn't at all hard to heat. Slabs burn slower when stacked together tightly, then a starter fire made on top of it. My Blaze King holds a fire all night when so done, and filled about 1/4 of its capacity. The thick slabs are also about the size of split logs. As a customer of the mill, he gives me all I want. With one other guy, we loaded a couple cords in about 40 minutes. Its just a matter of getting someone to run them across the sawbuck so I can cut them up to stove length pieces. Slabs are my friends! I manage to stay 2 or 3 years ahead on firewood most of the time.
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Don_P
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# Posted: 8 May 2014 06:51am
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I heat primarily with slabwood and tops myself and convert the bole of the tree into lumber or timbers. One thing to think about in the way trees grow, the clearest wood is often that first cut. Many trees self prune as they grow meaning that the outer jacket boards are the clearest. They are sapwood, and the sapwood of all species is non decay resistant. Different species and different individual trees have different thicknesses of sapwood. For instance a black locust usually has less than 1/2" of sapwood where a pine can have 6" of sapwood. That was my comment that often all of the lumber you see in the building supply is sapwood. Anyway, a little tree tech 
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