If I had to debark all the slab wood we burn I would completely go loony. I am not burning doug fir or larch, but if I were, in the boiler they would go bark and all. I go through a lot of pine and spruce. I burn slab year round, for domestic hot water in a indoor wood boiler. There are no grates in either the boiler of the wood cookstove, to clog. Ash clean out is 4-5 times a year. It is amazing how big a pile of slabs can be converted into a wheelbarrow full of ashes.
There is a dike build here in town back in the late 1800s, it is a mix of rubble and slabs from the old mill. They used them as Brock mentioned, corduroy. The docks along the shore of the river have exposed slab showing due to erosion.
Tim
