I think a bear musta got him! He's been gone a long time already! Sure hope there is someone else there who can weigh them pieces! I mean, it's bad and all that a bear got him, but dang it, this is an important test! And my curiosity needs to be satisfied! Ted
OK The splits in the outside stack Frickin cold out there, took 2 trips, that stuff is heavy. Then I had to take it back out. Found 5 This is in lbs & the scale is only about .2 lbs accurate #1 (a 1/2 round) was 12.6 now 12.0 #2 (1/2 round) was 9.6 now 9.0 #3 (triangle ) was 9.0 now 8.6 #4 (square) was 9.2 now 8.6 # 7 (square) was 7.4 now 7.0 So there is some drying in winter, not much though. #4 square seems to be the best, on the sunny side , east cross stack end & 3 sides are bare wood
OK Ted FYI no bears in Alaska above ground in the winter, (well , OK Polar bears but not this far south) But we have some big ice worms that cause the ice to be slippery LOL
What a relief! lol Glad you made it back! So, outside is averaging about 6% loss and inside is averaging about 17% loss. Quite a difference! Very interesting test ! Ted
About 3 X more drying inside. Expected to m=be much faster though. Warmer temps with low humidity this time of the year. So I do gain some drying thru winter, & we'll see how much it dries before it goes into the shed in August. It's there for 2 years then burned. (16/17 wood)
It does dry quickly inside. Give them some more heat, those pieces are almost ready to burn. The 10 lb inside piece, if it's initial average moisture content was: 80% it is now at 33% and will weigh 6.66 pounds at 20% 75% it is now at 29.5% and will weigh 6.85 pounds at 20% 70% it is now at 25% and will weigh 7.05 pounds at 20% 60% it is now at 18% Obviously we don't know what the initial content was. One website tells me paper birch is 80% when fresh cut. Yours also got some drying in before you weighed it. I believe that you can reasonably say that it is somewhere just below 30% overall. The outside piece going from 12.6 to 12. If it was: 80% is now 71% 70% is now 62% 60% is now 52% Need some more time there.
Yea Definitely needs more time, it'll get 3 years before it's burned. 1 out in the stack & 2 in the shed. Not sure what Alaska birch moisture content is green. I know it's a lot heavier in the summer when it has leaves than in the fall. This was cut in Oct. Compares to yellow birch by the BTU. Trees here have to loose most of their water before winter, or they'd freeze & break on the heavy winds. Would guess near 60% when it was cut.
If you think it was 60% when you cut it toss one in on a bed of coals and see if it hisses at you as it lights up. Since it will be unevenly seasoned, wetter on the inside, it might hiss a little but I think you'll be able to tell if it is really below 20% overall.
I have never done any scientific evaluation but in the cold dry air of winter, I am sure my wood drys. We have a trick in the fire service. When a pager or radio gets wet, after we get it initially dried off by obvious methods, towel, hair dryer, etc., we put it in the freezer overnight. Bingo, its dry by morning. Freeze dried!!!
To OP, great thread, thanks for your diligence. It appears that even though the outside wood hasn't lost a lot, it will when it warms up due to the cracking on the ends helping.
In my experience a year seasoned is plenty for our wood and climate. Letting it sit longer doesn't get much drier. I had a bit of 2 and 3 year seasoned wood in the back of a stack. It tests all about the same on my moisture meter as the wood I'm burning which is from fall 2012. The fresh cut green birch I've tested is 35-40% moisture. After about 6 months that wood was 20-30%, depending on where in the stack. At about a year, around 15%.
These types of threads amuse me, you can look up the facts about wood drying in many different places. Wood does dry in the winter but no where near as fast as when the temps are up. Two types of moisture in wood and the one type stops doing any thing after freezing, the other type will dry in winter. When ever I cut wood in the winter and I notice how much slower the ends crack as opposed to summer, the cracking indicates rapid moisture removal.
Think he means similar to freezer burn in your freezer for 1 type Other type, similar to a sponge, the internal moisture slowly wicks to the exposed wood edges as it dries Birch has water tight bark, the moisture under the bark has to wick to the bare wood edge, takes time Even my 3 year wood I'm testing is loosing moisture. : first weight: The 3 splits 3 year CSS. inside the basement 7.0 lbs sq, now 6.8 lost .2 lbs, 8.4 half round , now 8.0 , lost .4 lbs, 9.2 triangle, now 8.8 , lost .4 lbs Now : The 3 splits 3 year CSS. inside the basement 7.0 sq, now 6.6 8.4 half round , now.7.8 9.2 triangle, now 8.6
The way I know it is that there is free moisture in the 'straws' and there is moisture that is bonded in the cells that has been delivered by the 'straws'. The straw water is the easy stuff to get rid of. The water in the cells is what takes longer to get out.
Yep "To understand drying, we need to know that water is contained in wood cells in two ways: Wood can hold moisture in the cell lumen (cavity) as liquid or “free” water, or as adsorbed or “bound” water attached to the cellulose molecules in the cell wall. Figure 1 (page 2) shows these two conditions. The occurrence of free water does not affect the properties of wood other than its weight. Bound water, however, does affect many properties of wood, and is more difficult to remove in the drying process."
I wonder if cut wood being completely frozen causes the cells to rupture. Obviously the cells don't rupture in a live plant or it wouldn't be live for very long. The question being, does freezing firewood help it dry because it causes the cells to rupture?
Auh, good question. I have a college degree in Botany and I have no idea what the answer is to this question. My guess is that the cells do rupture when frozen, everything else does. What effect that will have on drying might be another story. I kinda like the "Dennis theory" If you season it for 3 or more years, none of that matters But then I have gotten a lot simpler in my old age.
