I know I've read other posts on here about when is the best time to cut wood, but I have stumbled onto something the last couple of days I thought I would share. I recently purchased a moisture meter and have been randomly checking my wood that I had split from last year. 12-18%. My grandpa had a logger come in and log a bunch of trees along his field ( white, red, black oak, cherry, hickory, and everything in between) and I was planning on it taking 2 years to season if I got it all split this year. When I started splitting and checked with moisture meter all the butts, limbs, and other pieces were 13-22% moisture already. I couldn't believe it. I checked and rechecked a bunch of times. Always getting same readings. Came home and checked my seasoned pile and it is right where it's supposed to be.
My point to all that is that some old timers told me to always try and cut when the sap is down in the winter. They said that when tree is full of green leaves, even when immediately split, wood will take longer to dry because it is full of sap. It made since to me, but with the meter it just validates it more. I can't believe it was that low. I was expecting 30's but not 17 avg. I guess those old timers did know a thing or two about wood. The logger was finishing up today and cut the last tree(cherry) about 24 inch diameter and I immediately checked the log he was taking and it was 18. He said the same thing, cut with sap down if possible.
Just thought I would share this little info I have come across.
And with all this wood, it's like I have won the lottery. Gonna need to make a different storage area
My point to all that is that some old timers told me to always try and cut when the sap is down in the winter. They said that when tree is full of green leaves, even when immediately split, wood will take longer to dry because it is full of sap. It made since to me, but with the meter it just validates it more. I can't believe it was that low. I was expecting 30's but not 17 avg. I guess those old timers did know a thing or two about wood. The logger was finishing up today and cut the last tree(cherry) about 24 inch diameter and I immediately checked the log he was taking and it was 18. He said the same thing, cut with sap down if possible.
Just thought I would share this little info I have come across.
And with all this wood, it's like I have won the lottery. Gonna need to make a different storage area