Okay, I guess it is time I chime in on the mills sprinkling the logs with water. It is definitely to keep them from drying out too quickly. It keeps the wood in better shape for when they get around to milling it. It no doubt helps with the insects too. The drying out idea is what I was told many moons ago. I was curious because we never peed on our logs; we just milled them.
May help the bark be shredded off easier too? May help clean them a bit? I don’t know, never seen this watering of the logs waterlogged log scenario.
I've seen it a few times. I know my dad told be that it was at least partially due to being less of a fire hazard. I do think the bark coming of easier is another reason, and there may be more.
Basically in a short version, water plays a part in exposure? I will agree. If you look at logs that have been out in the elements, stacked up or in well drained areas, they are often greyed, bark is off and whatnot. Doesn’t mean they’d be ready to go if bucked and split but certainly depends on what they are. The more bark they have on them the more likely it’s gonna be susceptible to rot, but opening that up helps the wood seem to stabilize without necessarily ruining it. If it’s standing water then I could see that posing a problem but lightly misted would be more effective!
Actually it’s right on the money. They use boiled water to make clear ice cubes for whiskey. The oxygen in that water has been boiled off so results in clear ice as opposed to tap water just drizzled in the tray.
No no You warned everyone that if you told this story, that disagreements would show up and we heard it from you. I honestly think that opening up a can of worms to everyone who disbelieves you can either believe what they want or disprove it otherwise. There’s reason why science is in books and not labeled as opinion. These results are called “hypotheses” and “findings” for a reason because they produced enough static results for plausibility, therefore ousting opinion for documentation. Horkn posted the right information and some of these folks here think simple science hasn’t got an effect on wood. At first I had to think well this is crazy but thinking about how wood gets wicked with small amounts of water is more effective than with a complete dousing.
The process of evaporation takes energy and this energy is absorbed from the surrounding area. I suppose it is possible that applying a little water to your wood, especially on a hot day would cause a quick evaporation to occur which could absorb some energy from the wood in the form of removing some some moisture. I can't imagine it's very efficient and I'd rather not waste water on wetting my wood in an attempt to slightly decrease the time it takes to draw moisture out of it. Applying water to the outside of wood does very little to change the internal moisture, so it's not like spraying water on your wood is going to make it more wet inside, unless you keep it so soaked for a prolonged period. A similar concept partially explains why licking your lips makes them more dry and not more moist. A large part is the due to the salt and other things in your saliva, but also the process of evaporation pulls some of the moisture out of your lips, leaving them even more chapped than before you licked them.
Resurrecting an old thread here… An example from the kitchen: I got my wife a wooden cutting board to accompany her new hi-end kitchen knife set. The cleaning instructions that came with the cutting board warned not to submerge the board in water but to wipe it with a clean damp sponge and then immediately pat it dry with a dry cloth or it would crack. Then to keep it seasoned with cutting board oil. Despite telling my wife not to put it in water, she has done it. And immediately (within a day) the cracks show and the boards start to separate. I gave it a treatment with cutting board oil and they closed a little but not completely. I have some wood handled cooking utensils and the instructions warn not to run through the dishwasher but to hand wash them and dry the wood handles immediately to prolong their life. And despite this, she ran them through the dishwasher and the next day the handles were cracking. These cracks did not happen until they had been through my wife’s “water treatment”. Just sayin’. Wood is wood, whether in the kitchen or in the firewood pile.
That makes two of us! I guess she is of the camp that believes “you can’t dry out wood by putting water on it” and I can’t convince her otherwise. Gotta pick my battles. Sometimes this issue is like trying to convince a flat-earther the world is really round.
I have daughters-in-law who have put wood handled knives in the dishwasher. It didn't take long for the handles to turn white. The last knife set we bought for them was all metal.
The kitchen not be a man's place, but that doesn't mean the people left in charge know how to take care of the kitchen either. That, my friend, is still your job.
No , I’m not suggesting it. I’m telling you it absolutely 100% is. Hence the cracks. Hence the shrunken structure. Hence the lighter weight. But don’t fooled by the photographs —and even those were taken after I treated them with cutting board oil to get the cracks to swell closed a little. It helped but wasn’t a repair.
On average, what’s the RH in the home? Surfactants might also be causing some deterioration, but I’m not a soap expert, so there’s that.
