Historically I have always used the seat of the pants method of checking if my wood is seasoned. Stack it for a couple years and then pick it up and estimate by weight if its dry or not and then burn some and look for any steam coming from the ends. Now that I have been on this site, I bought a moisture meter and cut enough wood to be on the 3 year plan. I checked the stacks I will be burning this year an wanted your opinion. The cherry I have is about 5 years old is measures consistently at 8. That's good. The rest is a mixture of seasoned oak, maple sycamore, poplar and big tooth aspen, it almost all reads about 14 - 16. I'm checking it after I split a piece in the middle. All are top covered outside single row. I was surprised the cherry was so low and now curious about the 14 - 16 readings? Good to go?
14 - 16 may be the lowest it can ever get, no matter how long it's stacked. There is some moisture in our atmosphere. The splits reach an equilibrium and stay there. I say yes - very good to go. Any dryer than that you'd have to light it with a fuse and run! LOL.
Oh and a moisture meter without species correction will have different innacuracies for different species. For instance, at 20% MC you have different electrical resistance in maple or cherry or oak.
These sound low... check a piece of KD scrap you have lying around. I've also checked my palm (don't stick too deep!) and that's in the 30's. I hope you find it to be accurate, because if so you are ready for winter!
16 burns really well, and 18 is fine but might hiss a little at the beginning. I agree, that 8 on the Cherry seems too low. Even the species correction shouldn't be more than 3% or so max, most are just a percent or two.
I'd say you are golden Fan, you'll know for sure this winter but even if that oak sizzles a little at those readings I'll think you will do just fine.
8% sounds kinda low ,heck the bottom of my coffee table is 12% but I have gotten 8% reading on the outside of splits out in the sun I haven't seen any difference burning 16-18% It's all good
We had some cherry checked with a very expensive mm. It was 8 years in the stack if I remember right and they got measurements from 8-11%. Burned beautifully. I'm not 100% certain but think this load may have been from the wood we supplied. I think some was put in the Progress and also the Fireview that is sitting to the right of the Progress. I know it got a bit hot in that factory!
I did the same thing last night. I had the dogs out in the yard with me and I went through where the stacks are and decided to take a piece of beech down. I split it and got some decent readings for only 5 months in the stack. Outside was 15% and the inside of the resplit was 18%. I was kind of shocked to because beech is kinda heavy and it still felt as heavy as the day I stacked it.
That seems like a big reduction in MC in those 5 months. It will be interesting to see where it levels off after a year or two if you can store it that long. I'm curious to see just how low some of this wood will go if it's stored a little longer and does it really make that much difference in how it burns if it's 16 or let's say 10/12? Somehow my cherry found itself to 8 after 5 years.
I wonder if this particular piece being on the top of the stack directly under the clear plastic had anything to do with it? I have found in the past that top pieces in the stack do more favorable than say the top 1/3 to the bottom. I should try removing some middle and bottom pieces to see what they come in at.
Thread fork here......maybe to spruce up the look some, but why put down a hearth pad on a concrete floor?
Clear plastic and direct sun will dry wood very fast. No precipitation is getting on it and you are getting the full benefit of the sun.
Good question Dave. Because at that time there were customers or potential customers looking so why not dress it up just a little? Even had one on a pedestal. Then there was this beast of a thing my wife wanted to take home. And for a good look at size, this is a Fireview in front of the big one.
Now that you said that it makes me think. I wonder how much of the tops of 12 rows of new splits are nearly ready??? Maple, beech, ash and birch that I can remember. I could be onto something here
That progress is a beautiful stove..ill be keepin my heritage for a couple more years....i will have a progress hybrid...
Pretty much knew that Dennis. I'm a fairly no-frills kind of person, so it seemed unneeded. I do get it though. Judy looked like she was ready to carry that to the car.
I've wondered too weather I could just go down a stack and grab the top stuff to get some dry wood. Lotta heat and air on that top row. Wouldn't be a lot of wood, though. Luckily, I've got plenty of dry stacks now and won't have to resort to that.
Just a thought..if you removed say the top 12" to burn. then that puts the next 12" in a place to dry faster, no?
