Breaking down slabwood

[Tom Cancelleri]

I bought a slab of black walnut at an auction for 40 bucks it's 66 board feet with a natural edge. It's 10' x 20" x 4" I wanna break it down since it's around 225 or so pounds and an unwieldy beast and it stands on the floor and I'm tired of moving it around. I wanna chop it up and move it to my basement where I have room for lumber. I can't figure out what to use to break it down since it's so big. My circular saw is out of the question, jig saw is a joke for something that big, I can't bring the wood to the tool since it's so big and heavy. I was thinking maybe sawzall/reciprocating saw with a coarse 7" carbide wood blade and rip it into 6" wide chunks. I could then resaw it on the bandsaw into 4/4 pieces. Any suggestions on breaking down this behemoth?

[..Kev]

My first suggestion is to leave it as is.  Once cut, you can't put it back together.

 

Sawsall or chainsaw to cut it. 

[dwacker]

Cross cut with anything you have. Band saw will handle the rest.

[Tom Cancelleri]

My first thought was to build a mantle with it when I bought it. My house has a pretty standard mantle and I'm not up for renovating anything in my house right now. I also thought about building a bar top with it and building a bar in my basement, but I don't spend my time in my basement drinking. I turned that into a gym and given the layout of how the builders finished the basement, a bar wouldn't be a good idea. 

[Boatworks Today]

A bit more hassle, but my suggestion would be to find the person that milled it and see what it would cost to have it sawn one more time into (2) 8/4 pieces maintaining the full width and let this acclimate / stabilize for a while.  They'll still be big pieces, but much more manageable to move.  Once down to 8/4 now it can be worked with a tablesaw once you find a perfect use for it

[wdwerker]

I would cut with a skilsaw and straight edge to establish a cut line to follow with the sawzall.

As to size to break it down to 6 ft .Seems small enough to move but big enough to make a sofa table, hall table or short bar. The 4 ft piece would be long enough to yield 2 live edge legs or maybe live edge aprons ?

[Tom Cancelleri]

A bit more hassle, but my suggestion would be to find the person that milled it and see what it would cost to have it sawn one more time into (2) 8/4 pieces maintaining the full width and let this acclimate / stabilize for a while.  They'll still be big pieces, but much more manageable to move.  Once down to 8/4 now it can be worked with a tablesaw once you find a perfect use for it

 

Unfortunately the wood was sold at an auction from an estate sale. The wood was cut about 25 years ago. Was sitting in this guys shop until he passed away and his family sold all his tools and such at auction. Figuring out who cut it originally is near impossible.

 

 

I would cut with a skilsaw and straight edge to establish a cut line to follow with the sawzall.

As to size to break it down to 6 ft .Seems small enough to move but big enough to make a sofa table, hall table or short bar. The 4 ft piece would be long enough to yield 2 live edge legs or maybe live edge aprons ?

 

I like that idea, I could cut it to a 6 foot and 4 foot section to make it more manageable to move around and work. I keep that width which is pretty desirable.

[Boatworks Today]

It wouldn't necessarily need to be the original person, just anyone with a portable mill that's fairly local.. 

[wdwerker]

Label the cut faces so you can rematch the grain easily when you decide to use it. Might not need it but much easier to do it in advance than to try to match a roughly cut surface.

[TerryMcK]

Hard point panel saw will easily cross cut that. Get some buddies to take it down stairs and pay them in beer.

[harwester]

It's really helpful. Thank you so much