Moisture readings

I took some pics this morning of wood I have gotten over the past month or so. It sprinkled over night here in Indiana so I think the reading was affected a bit. I know I took the reading of the white oak and black cherry yesterday when I got them and they both were under 15%.

I don't have the best meter, but it does what I need for me own testings. I thought the guys would find interest in my readings.

Shipper

Hey Shipper, did you just split those to get the readings? I always check mine after splitting again for accurate moisture content
readings. I split some white oak couple months ago, the outsides will read less than 20% but the inside will be 35%+...

Just to make sure your readings are correct as possible, you should split a few of those pieces and test on the inside. You'll be amazed at the difference!

I bought the cherry and white oak yesterday from a guy who with his son they split their wood by hand. He said the wood was around a year old and the price is very right.

I did split the white oak again and took another moister reading and it did read 30%. Would you split this wood again since its all big quarters? How much would I gain by going through the hassle of splitting?

Thanks
Shipper

I think you would gain quite a bit just by splitting them in half or smaller. I got my H2O meter a few weeks ago and was doing some experimenting with big and small splits.

The batch of wood I experimented on was cut and split on the same day from the same tree (pecan). I considered small splits 2-inch or less across and large splits any thing bigger than that. I drilled half-inch deep holes with a quarter-inch bit to gain inside readings. The small splits were 18 to 24-percent moisture on the inside. The large splits read 18 to 27-percent moisture. A couple 3-inch by 20inch long rounds were split and both recorded 30-percent moisture and over near the center of the length and read an average of 26-percent moisture about 2-inches from the ends.