Fresh off the splitter: Weight in pounds 6 in the basement: 5 outside (Now in the kindling stack for the fire pit, may move to the birch stack when done S&S'ing)
WOW on Oct 24th, I split & weighed, 4 days later the inside wood has lost some weight (lbs) #2 = 14.8 , now 13.4 #3= 10.6, now 9.2 #4= 14.2, now 12.6 #6 = 12.0 , now 10.4 #9 = 10.6, now 9.2 #11 = 10.2, now 9.0 The 3 left from last year, the weights, no change Makes me want to go weigh the outside frozen ones
So how do you know what moisture it is at by measuring its weight? Its cool to see the weight go down as it dries - going from 10lbs to 9lbs obviously means you lost 1lb of water but how do you put that to information to good use? Using a moisture meter is a pretty straight forward method, under 20%MC is accepted as ideal moisture content, so you check with the meter and see if that's what you got. I've heard of peopling weighing splits to see how much water actually comes out but how do you tell if it is enough or how much is left in the wood?
Nice work Dave.. Looking forward to this. At this rapid water loss rate y0u wont need a house humidifier running this winter.....
Why do you have so much kindling......... I thought you only start a Blaze King once in it's life and runs forever Sorry couldn't resist Awesome test by the way and I am looking forward to seeing the results . I am jealous of your kindling stack for sure!
Made a comment to this effect on Dave's other "winter moisture loss" thread from last year. You kind of need the MM to establish the baseline when it's fresh cut (assuming it's not too wet to get an accurate reading). But after that, weight is the more accurate test. It can tell you how much is being lost inside the wood, without having to re-split. The MM can really only tell you the MC of the outside inch or so of the split. They would use weight in a lab test as well. But you need to complete the test, and take the wood all the way to 0% MC, to determine what the original percentage was.
That makes sense, no doubt its a surer method than a MM it just seems like the data is less clear without all the pieces of the puzzle.
Once you know the % water and weight at any given point you can figure out the % at any other, knowing the weight only. So even using the standard split and poke a few spots MM test will let you calculate it for other weights. (Within the limit of error). The scale will also tell you the immediate effect of rain or sun on your stack a lot better than a MM since you can see the overall weight change on a few sample pieces. That will let you fine tune your methods if you are so inclined. The answer to the should I cover it or not question can be settled real quick.
Now that makes sense! I guess what I was missing was at least a baseline moisture reading so that there is something to correlate the weight to. Would be real interesting to see the uncovered vs covered argument explored this way.
Yea, lots of kindling. Spruce. Fire pit wood, Starting a fire pit fire quick to coals in the small section of the pit, makes cooking coals for hot dogs & Smore's within 30 minutes or so.
Weighed the outside ones. What a difference. #1 = 12.2 no 12.0 #5 = 12.0 , now 11.8 #7 = 9.8 , now 9.6 #8 = 9.8 , now 9.6 #10 = 8.4 , now 8.4 Being frozen, make a big difference. An 80° basement , close to the stove, is the place to dry wood.
Hey Dave - I just thought of a really cool test... You could prove whether the MC is lower in a tree cut in the winter vs the spring/summer with this same sort of test. If the MC is higher in the summer, the wood will weigh more, and have more weight to lose.
Good idea May give it a try. A buddy who cuts says "fell in the spring, let the tree leaf out thru summer , limb & buck in the fall, & it's almost 1/2 as heavy. ? ?
That does sound like a pretty good way to go. It has a summer to dry and if the log pushes out leaves its definitely using up water. ... You could test that too...
Hard one for me to do in a public cutting area, I prep a tree & leave it, someone else may take it home
Well, I'll bet splits would dry faster anyway. For woodworking purposes, they tell you 1 year per inch air dried. And I'm not so sure birch would do that great that way anyways. You don't get very long before it starts to rot, because of that watertight bark.