Wood Moisture question

[Freeheat]

Dropped a standing dead red oak tree, got the wood home and split it . the readings I'm getting are all over the board center of the tree 31-35% move the meter away from
the center 24-26% all the way next to the bark 35%. I wasn't planning on the wood this year , but for my info use the highest reading to caculate the water??



JIM

 

[FixedGearFlyer]

I'm new to heating with wood and to the forums, but have a lot of experience with wood and moisture meters as a carpenter. I always found that when the moisture content was high or the wood was fresh, it was hard to get an accurate reading beyond knowing it was wet and not ready to me made into furniture or cabinets.

After a run through the kiln or sitting on my drying racks for a year or two, the moisture readings become much more consistent for a particular piece and also seem to be more accurate as the moisture dropped to workable levels.

I always felt that knowing the wood was wet was enough and I didn't worry about the exact reading until it was almost read to be worked.

 

[FixedGearFlyer]

And, to actually answer your question (whoops!), I would use the highest reading since it's farthest from the desired result.

 

[ecocavalier02]

if the wood got rained on the bark is going to hold water there that will dry up fast split the piece of wood and check the middle of it. that would be your best reading. oak takes a while to season at least 2 years.

 

[Chris S]

30% is considered saturated for wood. Oak when we split it is almost always completely wet inside, and as you already know, slow to give up it's moisture.

 

[Wood Duck]

If this was drier wood and you were calculating the moisture content to see if it reaches a set goal (e.g. is this wood at 20% m.c?), I think you'd want to use a weighted average of the moisture content. That is, if a narrow band along the outside is higher, while a thick area of the middle is lower m.c., then you'd weight the m.c. values by the amount of wood they represent.

However, I don't think I'd bother with that. Instead, I'd just take a few readings, and if most of the wood in the split seems pretty close to where I want it to be, I'd burn the wood. Since you have found that none of the wood in the split is at the right moisture content, I'd plan on seasoning the wood a year and rechecking.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

Dropped a standing dead red oak tree, got the wood home and split it . the readings I'm getting are all over the board center of the tree 31-35% move the meter away from
the center 24-26% all the way next to the bark 35%. I wasn't planning on the wood this year , but for my info use the highest reading to caculate the water??



JIM

Sure. . .

 

[Backwoods Savage]

if the wood got rained on the bark is going to hold water there that will dry up fast split the piece of wood and check the middle of it. that would be your best reading. oak takes a while to season at least 2 years.

In this instance, that is not necessarily true. Red oak will tend to get a little punky on the outside of the log and if it is punky, that will soak up some water so will take longer to dry. Still, it should be some darned good wood.