Very true, the MM can only test a specific spot. Problem with wet wood is a MM is quite useless when it is saturated much above the mid thirties. Read up on oven drying samples, that is the lab way of doing it. You you cook all the water out of a small slice, then knowing how much weight it lost you know its original water content.
Oh I beg to differ, the water is coming out of the ground into the bottom of the tree (unless you are joking and I am not picking up on it).
That's right, t and for me a moisture meter is an essential tool, because I don't have my own wood lot, or room to store three to five years of wood
A MM is more then good enough for my uses (a fun toy for the most part), I have been very happy with my HF cheapie and have tested it on everything from wet Oak to Pine lumber. As far as telling wood is dry by picking it up, yes I agree Shawn most of the time that's more then good enough but once in a while I get fooled after all I am an old fool.
I have done the test banging them together and then checking them with a moisture meter and they just don't coincide, oh that sounds right!! but I guess it is not ,cuz moisture meter says it is not. You cannot detect the weight or sound between 30 percent and 20 percent on a split of wood
Yep I tried that and I had some wood that sounded like base ball bats when hit together but they were still too wet.
I'll throw this into the ring on my experiences. I do not have a moisture meter so it is a visual thing. We have a rather large backlog of wood. All of it is underroof with non leaking roofs. I have personally had wood that was cut 8 years prior,stored for eight years, sitting on a concrete floor, that STILL sizzled and had visible steam coming out the ends when thrown in the stove. I believe there is a point when the atmosphere comes into play as it will draw moisture back into it. I bet if you have some kiln dried lumber and stack it under roof after coming out of the kiln, the moisture level would go up. I have an OWB that is in a building along with all the wood for it so it ALL stays dry, including me when feeding it! When the snow starts melting a lot of times there will be moisture forming around the door and pipes just because the air is that "wet". Dampness is dampness is guess.
You're absolutely right. Wood is "hygroscopic", and will eventually reach an equilibrium point of MC, with the RH of your climate. In the northeast, this seems to be between 14-16% MC. In your case, with those ginormous stacks, it may be taking longer to completely dry the middle and bottom of those stacks, simply because the moisture released by all that wood is keeping the RH higher inside the barn, than the average outside. *Real* KD lumber will usually take on moisture, unless you live in a really dry climate. But the stuff they sell in the big box stores as "KD", can still peg out the MM!
I thought of that as we after seeing it sizzle. I then went to another barn and took wood that was on the OUTSIDE cross stack end and threw it in.(8 years stored as well) It sizzled the same way. Ohio is blessed with some great? humidity though
I do not understand your post about the roots of the tree and the lower rounds, went back and read it again and not sure what you were saying.
Neat truck you have there, not sure I understand why your wood sizzles like that, I am sure there are many here from Ohio and could chime in. Average humidity for Columbus Ohio is 80 in the morning and 57 in the afternoon, for Des Moines Iowa is is 78 morning and 56 afternoon so not all that different.
I should rephrase this , I cannot detect the weight or sound between 30 percent and 20 percent on a split of wood
I believe he was originally referring to the "wives tale" about seasonal sap flow affecting the MC, and therefore the weight of the wood in the tree. This has been tested extensively, and disproven, by the pulpwood industry. There is no seasonal difference. The reason trees in Alaska and elsewhere don't freeze and break in the winter (above 40 below) is because the sap contains a natural "antifreeze".
The water that is in the tree takes time to drain down into the roots. I'm saying when I cut the tree, the water had not all drained out of the tree. When it got around 12°, it forced some of the water out the ends of the rounds. Trees here have to get rid of water, to much water at -30°, -40°f is not good. Not only damage to the structure, , they'd be brittle & a good wind storm would snap them . Picks of a few splits in the stack that had water coming out the ends. Not -40 & looks frozen to me.
That is what I thought you said, the bottom part of the tree is getting moisture from the ground, it would be news to me if the water "drains" out of the tree.
