Air movement is the best! Mc and wood generally dries on a bellcurve with a season vs moisture axis. Most of my wood outside (in my garage or shop) won drop below 15-16%. It's called equilibrium. (Just like Paul bunions linked article notes or suggests) Bringing the wood inside will get it to 8-10%. Outside... depending on the year it won't go lower. Sometimes it won't go below 18. If wood doesn't dry in the winter, should the seasoning times charts be corrected for geographic location? I think of freezer burned meat, when thinking of drying wood in the winter. Freezer burned is the dehydration and oxidation of food while frozen.
The usual change of states for H2O would be from ice to water to gaseous. During the cold months of winter, ice can skip the water state and go right to water moisture due to a process called sublimation. So, even though the water in wood is frozen , given the dry air of winter, wood can continge to dry out. Granted, it's slower than warm months.
I agree, wood will dry in freezing temperatures. My wood split in Dec. dries down quite a bit in the Winter and the evidence is the cracking/checking on the ends. The wood done in Dec. is noticeably lighter than that done in Feb. If it didn't dry it would be the same. The whole concept of freeze dried food is evaporating the moisture out in freezing temps, i.e. the concept of sublimation. For the OP, the test should be done by weighing the chunks, not testing moisture.
Ok, I'm not going to debate "any issue" on drying but some common sense say's if you put a tray of ice cubes out in December and it stays freezing, they'll still be there frozen in March. But if you put an ice cube tray out in March it'll be gone by May. That's what I mean by dormant. Yes, can ice go to a gas state, sure but our temps don't get to the factor of "dry ice". Freeze dried food is not wood!!!, Density, tissue, molecule variation, blood content, moisture content to the molecular structure and so on. Now, wood with high moisture content, "cut" will split and dissipate moisture, even dead wood will. Gas will form if the concentrations of very low humidity and extreme cold, and it takes a much slower process to do so. Anyway, have fun..... as long as it's dry, burn it!
Gee, do you think it snows just a little bit there ? [/sarcasm] You can actually often dry clothes below freezing in Winter faster on a cold, sunny, Winter day via sublimation than a still air, 99% humidity , cloudy Summer day. Try it some time.
I agree with the humidity factor, "Trust me" I'm right on the coast!, seven blocks actually from the big pond. Well, i've hung out clothes in winter and all they've ever done was freeze.
Of course!!! It's removing the humidity. All I was saying is: Mother nature has her own pace at drying wood and all the science don't mean $#!T if she doesn't cooperate. I get it...
If things evaporate in the cold(crazy talk) will my wood stacks vanish over winter? How dare Hecks does dry ice work.... If it's dry how can it be ice...proof!!!!!
"Dry Ice" is a commercial trade name given to solid CO2 sold as a product. Like "refrigerator" it became a common name.
Well I know with sugar maples (any syrup maker will tell you this) other trees may be different. The reason you tap in spring, is warm days and 20s at night. The trees naturally push sap to roots before cold so that sap does not freeze and break tree. Mother Nature is so smart! So if you are tapping before hand and a damaged tree needs to come down. First thing you do is girdle it. By cutting 3 inches deep couple feet all way around tree and axing out bark. This will kill it but all Sap will stay in stump and wood will be much drier when you get a chance to cut it!!
Gents.....I think science is calling here. I'm back up at the mine here in the arctic for a few weeks. When I get back, I think I'm going to see if I can round up some kind of an accurate scale. If I can, what I'll do is go out and cut down another live pine or spruce and set some pieces aside....both split and not split. I'll weigh them every 2 weeks or so over the winter. Due to the nature of my job, I'm away for up to 16 days at a time and a minimum of 14 so more frequently than that isn't possible. Maybe I should just make it once per month. That way there won't be too much variance in the number of days. I'll also split a bunch from the same tree and take moisture readings at the beginning of the test and at the end. Then, those of you who are better at math than myself can have some actual real world numbers to crunch. We'll stop the experiment a year from its start to see where we're at. Sound like a plan ? Yes, I love Mythbusters. Lol !
Excellent plan, just remember to set a reminder for weighing the pieces.... IIRC, I got a cheapie food weighing scale from Wally World with a max weight of 11 lbs. for ~$15.... it has a metal washer holding the glass surface down, but I’ve weighed pieces by adding shims, zeroing out the scale for those shims, then adding the wood split... works like a charm....to two decimal places even. DO IT!
There's a few of us who can do some pencil cyphering! I know Eric VW and a few more here can count to at least 20 And, I can count my one neighbor's 4 teeth we can get 24 at least!
