October 3, 2025 - By Kidogo Farm Staff
Have you ever searched for live edge slabs and thought, wow there is a lot of variability in the pricing! No you are not seeing things, this is very true and in this post I want to try to go over the reasons why, at least in my opinion, that happens. There are many factors that go into why a live edge slab varies in price, and the first reason we will look at is geography. In certain parts of the country wood is just simply worth more or less. Areas where a particular species, like Black Walnut live edge wood slabs, are plentiful, may cost much less than somewhere that has very little of a species of tree. The age old adage of supply and demand is at play here, the more you have the less it is and vice versa.
The second factor, while related to the first as to why live edge slabs vary greatly in pricing is because of how many people are creating the inventory. If there is a mill on every corner and everyone is milling they all have to compete with one another. This usually leads to a wide variety of prices. There are many new sawyers that mill just as a hobby, or for the fun of it, and thus don't really mind getting much less for their live edge slabs. This concept does hit people that do it for a living a bit in the pocket book but it is just a fact of life. What you do have to watch out for is the quality of a hobbyist's slabs which leads us into the final main reason for the pricing variations in live edge slabs.
The greatest reason for such a wide variety of prices on live edge slab lumber I believe is mostly due to the uniqueness of each slab. Unlike dimensional lumber, that pretty much tries to be uniform and the same, live edge slabs are praised for the differences, and even their flaws that make them unique and beautiful. What one person sees as a flaw, or defect, is another persons "Mona Lisa" and the most celebrated part of the live edge slab. So what really is going on here is the old saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". While many other things can influence the pricing, like quality of the tree, defects, the sawyers skill in milling the log in the best possible way, the uniqueness is the main reason for such a wide swing in pricing. We have all heard something is worth what someone is willing to pay for it, and this certainly applies to live edge slabs and lumber. Depending on how "unique" someone feels a live edge slab is, the more, or often times less they are willing to pay for it.