Free Moisture Meter

[pen]

As a kid I can clearly remember times when cleaning up old copper pipe joints to re-solder, when scraping gaskets off for a water pump or cyl head, etc, where I asked "Is that clean enough" and the response always was "If you have to ask the answer is no."

I think that philosophy goes to measuring the moisture in wood as well and deciding if it is ready to burn. If you look at your wood and aren't sure whether or not it is ready, then it's not.

When a good many of the splits in my pile look like these below I know I'm ready. For me that's usually about 5 seasons (summer, fall, winter, spring, summer) of sitting split and stacked outside w/ good air circulation. Sometimes it's covered, sometimes not until a few months before it will be burned.

When judging firewood in a pile I like to focus in on the rounds. Those typically are the slowest to dry out. When I find rounds looking like these (when they look like they will split in half if they were to drop on concrete) I know we are getting to the point where things are well seasoned and I just I don't see a need for a fancy electronic moisture meter to tell me if I am dry or not. If I feel the need to double check, split a piece and immediately stick it to your cheek / face. If it feels damp at all you'll feel it. That to me is a free moisture meter and that observation added w/ some good sense won't lie to you.

Here's what's in the wood rack next to the stove now that I have deemed worthy of heating my home. You will also notice that the bark is either missing or if still on, not holding on by much.

pen

 

[snowleopard]

Gotta wonder how folks ever made it in the old days, right? (although I think it's safe to say that our expectations are a little higher when it comes to our creature comforts).

 

[Thistle]

I've owned a Lignomat Mini-Ligno E Moisture Meter (pre-digital model)since late 1994.I've never used it on firewood,just planks,blocks & slabs I've milled for cabinet/furniture making & woodturning.Depending on the species,I will wait from 1 to 3 yrs for wood to be dry enough to burn well.Dead standing Hickory can be a year once cut & split,while Red/White Oak can take up to 3 yrs.Others such as Silver Maple,Mulberry,Cherry etc can be ready in a year also sometimes.

 

[pen]

I burn cherry, maple, beech and ash. These all season well w/ a year to a little more than a year's time in my environment. There's oak in my neck of the wood but it certainly isn't the prevalent species.

pen

 

[rdust]

The biggest issue is not everyone has room for years worth of wood. I have plenty of room but I'm limiting myself to keeping 3 years on hand. I'd hate to put this joint up for sale someday and have to move 5 years worth of wood. :lol:

My first year I think the meter worked well helping me select what was the "best" stack to be pulling from. Now that I'm stocked up it's really just a novelty item.

 

[Woody Stover]

Red/White Oak can take up to 3 yrs.Others such as Silver Maple,Mulberry,Cherry etc can be ready in a year also sometimes.

I'm up to my arse in Red Oak, but I'm looking at small splits and a dry summer for that to be passable. A couple of those Reds were snapped off at the base in heavy wind a couple of years ago; I don't know how much of a head start that gives me...
I need to find some "others."

split a piece and immediately stick it to your cheek / face. If it feels damp at all you'll feel it.

Don't even need to split fresh or use my cheek on some of the stuff I have available to burn now. I can feel the moisture with my hand. I cook those off next to the stove. A sorry state of affairs, to be sure.

 

[bogydave]

The biggest issue is not everyone has room for years worth of wood. I have plenty of room but I'm limiting myself to keeping 3 years on hand. I'd hate to put this joint up for sale someday and have to move 5 years worth of wood. :lol:

My first year I think the meter worked well helping me select what was the "best" stack to be pulling from. Now that I'm stocked up it's really just a novelty item.

If you did move, I betting most of the wood would find a way to the new place if it were possible.
Dry wood anywhere is a premium commodity. Or 1 load of the premium driest stuff for sure would follow you somehow.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

This wood in the picture below was cut and split this fall. It's all < 20% MC, I know I measured it with my meter back when I cut it.
Because I don't have a lot of room, and cut and burn most of my wood same year it's important for me to be sure it's all dry enough to burn properly, using my moisture meter comes in very handy.
To tell you the truth Pen, when I look at your wood and see all the mold on it it looks kinda damp to me.

 

[bogydave]

Pen, was it seasoned under a tarp for a period of time?

Carbon_Liberator,
When wood starts to rot, will it hold more moisture? I had some birch that that I burned last year, it had mold & some rotten/soft spots.
Some real punky stuff, (but it's what I had)It was 4 or 5 years in the stacks covered in the summer (winter alway blew/shredded the tarps.)
I thought I was doing good, now I know better.
It burned, but not near as good as the 2yr old birch & 1 yr spruce I'm burning this year.

Before I got educated on this site, I used to cover my stacks with tarp. It looked similar, but some was worse than in Pen's pics.

 

[soupy1957]

I bought, and still have, a moisture meter..............don't use it...........but I have it.............

I guess I just got used to how wood should look/sound when it's "ok to burn it."

-Soupy1957

 

[pen]

There is no punk to the wood at all. All wood I have ever seen seasoned outside in the elements will turn greyish or dark as it oxidizes from being exposed to some weather and sun. The darkest spots you see on there really don't even scrape off so if they are a mold they are dried hard. I think maybe the flash is exaggerating things also.

Here's a further out picture but in general, wood died in the elements will change in appearance.

This wood in the picture below was cut and split this fall. It’s all < 20% MC, I know I measured it with my meter back when I cut it.
Because I don’t have a lot of room, and cut and burn most of my wood same year it’s important for me to be sure it’s all dry enough to burn properly, using my moisture meter comes in very handy.
To tell you the truth Pen, when I look at your wood and see all the mold on it it looks kinda damp to me.

If you got cherry dry enough to burn in just a few months this fall good for you, I'd love to know what your weather is like. I have a pile of ash that is cut, split, stacked in August (the wood was originally cut in Jan and sat stacked as cuts all summer) that I would have loved to burn this winter just because of it's location. I tried some on two different occasions and it is not up to par yet. So, I just don't know how you do it. The wood I mention has a few hundred feet in front of it before any buildings and a few hundred yards worth of field directly to the back of it. W/ this location, it gets full wind and sun (if there is any) all day.

Here is a shot of the same wood where the flash isn't washing the colors out so badly.

pen

 

[oldspark]

Well I dont need a MM (most of my wood is 2 years old or more) , or a tach in the car (you can tell by the sound when to shift) or a thermometer in the house (you know when its cold) but they are a nice tool to have, a elm tree fell over last spring at my place and had to clean it up before mowing began, some of it was dry enough to burn then as checked with the MM (amazed me) and it burnt well. It's obivious that some think they are a waste of time and money but some people can make good use of them.

 

[Woody Stover]

elm tree fell over last spring at my place and had to clean it up before mowing began, some of it was dry enough to burn then as checked with the MM (amazed me) and it burnt well. It's obivious that some think they are a waste of time and money but some people can make good use of them.

I've got some Elm that was CSS in June, and it's burning OK now. I can't afford to be picky at this point.

 

[PapaDave]

The maple and pine will get that mold started before the wood has a chance to dry, even the way I stack it. It won't go away once it's in the wood, and the wood will be dry with those still showing.
I've got an old Mini Ligno (from back in the late 80's). It's mini useful, like for the rough oak in the shop that's been stickered for over 2 years. I'll use it on the splits every once in a while too, when I'm bored.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I would not worry about Pen's wood either. And I've also never owned or used a moisture meter. Simply put, we can keep enough wood ahead so we don't have to be concerned at what moisture content it is. Normally, I just burn the oldest stuff we have. Well, I've hoarded a little bit of the older stuff but it will get burned up this year sometime.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Well I'm just not use to seeing mold or much staining on my firewood, that's why I made the comment about Pen's firewood sort of a play on his statement “If you have to ask the answer is no.†;-)

I understand the way the mold starts on green wood and is fed by the moisture as it escapes out the ends of the splits, and permanently stains the wood even after the wood is fully seasoned, but I just don't get much of that on my wood so to me it looks like there is a lot of moisture coming out of that wood.

The reason I don't get mold on my wood (and I've posted about this many times) is because the trees I'm cutting are all standing dead lodgepole pine. Here in BC we have thousands of hectares of these dead trees, many have been dead standing for years and if you are selective enough when you are cutting, like me, you can pick trees that are already fully seasoned before you cut them down, like the ones you see in the picture. And since they are pre-seasoned there is no moisture to escape and cause mold to grow, if I started seeing mold start growing on the ends of my splits I would start second guessing whether they were as dry as I though they were. Of course I always check them with the moisture meter as I cut them.
I don't have a big lot to store years and years worth of wood. I only have enough storage area for one winters worth (and a little bit more), so it's essential that the wood I get is dry, or will be dry, by the beginning of the winter burning season.

 

[Battenkiller]

Pen, your wood looks fine to me. Yes, the flash can really change the way things look. That black is just mildew, and it forms pretty easily on woods like maple, but it doesn't go in even a millimeter deep.


I don't hold much faith in the looks of the ends to tell when the wood is ready, though. It's really a function of the type of wood and how fast it dries. Wood won't shrink until you get all the free water out of it. That happens at about 28% MC for most North American species. Since the ends lose their water 10-15 times faster than the sides, the wood at the ends gets below 28% real fast and starts to shrink while the middle of the split stays full size for a long time. The stress built up in the wood because of the differential shrinkage cause the ends to crack. I've had green hickory crack like that within a week in my dry basement, but when I did an oven-dry MC assessment, it was still 42% MC inside.

OTOH, I have a nice piece of curly ash that I rescued from the firewood many years ago. I think I found it on the bottom of a pile of wood in the spring, and slowly and carefully dried it to use for a hand adze I never ended up making. I just dug it out and looked at the ends. Only fine end-checking going on, and it is perhaps 10 years old now, maybe older. Stored inside all the time, in a dehumidified basement in the summer, and wood stove heated basement in the winter. I'd guess it is about 6% MC as it sits on the bench. As you can see, the bark is still very tight to the wood after all that time as well. Wood cut when the sap is running strong (spring, early summer) can lose it's bark in short order. Late fall and winter cut wood can keep it's bark forever. This wood was c/s/d sometime between late Oct and early Jan... same time I get all my wood delivered for 20 years now. You couldn't pry the bark off with a chisel.


I think that if you got a jump on the wood drying, there is absolutely no need for a meter. Even if you haven't, you'll learn quickly enough on you own. I've been burning for 25 years now and never owned one until last spring, and I'm a woodworker. For $12, it looked like a fun thing to have around, and it does have its uses (like proving to skeptics here that your wood really is dry). But for a newbie, the meter will tell you a lot more than looking at photos of cracked, blackened wood with the bark falling off. I guarantee I can put up a dozen photos here and no one could tell how dry the wood really was inside just by looking at the outside.

 

[rdust]

I don't hold much faith in the looks of the ends to tell when the wood is ready, though.

Neither do I, I have wood that is 2 years plus in the stack without hardly a check mark on them. I have wood that I got from Dennis last year that is who knows how old(6 years??) that is about the same.

 

[Battenkiller]

I don't hold much faith in the looks of the ends to tell when the wood is ready, though.

Neither do I, I have wood that is 2 years plus in the stack without hardly a check mark on them. I have wood that I got from Dennis last year that is who knows how old(6 years??) that is about the same.

Yeah, I was gonna say, "Just look at Dennis' ancient stacks", but I figured maybe he's tired of showing pics. Not any real heavy checking going on there. He cuts a lot in the winter, and his bark seem to hold on pretty good, even though the wood is older the Methuselah.

Here's a couple more wood pics, stuff stored outside. When was it cut and how long has it been sitting there? Anyone?

 

[oldspark]

BK, I would say this past fall, I cut some up late Oct. and it loods a lot like that, in the second summer of drying the wood starts to gray.

 

[Thistle]

Mix of Red/Black Oak,White/Bur Oak,some Shagbark Hickory & a little dead barkless Red Elm.Stored in shed at parents acreage for about 5 yrs,brought back to my backyard in Oct.2010.Havent had to get into it yet,but its ready when I do.

 

[Battenkiller]

BK, I would say this past fall, I cut some up late Oct. and it loods a lot like that, in the second summer of drying the wood starts to gray.

Pretty good. The photo was actually taken last Feb. 7, but your time frame is not far off. The cherry was delivered late in November 2009 and stacked right away, then left a little more than two months outside in the winter weather. It was burnable after only a couple more weeks finishing off inside (photo below).

The stack of bitternut hickory and red oak wasn't delivered until mid-December 2009. It was only out there 6-7 weeks, in the coldest part of winter, and yet the ends still dried fast enough to check pretty good. Wouldn't want to put that stuff in the stove, though, not unless I had a massive coal bed raging in there. Guarantee it would have sat there and smoldered, and maybe even put the fire out if I closed down the air. Looks can be real deceiving, and that stuff was definitely not ready for prime time.

Four weeks sitting in the BattenKiln (second photo below) got the hickory burning great, but the oak just never quite got there, and I carted in back outside and stacked in up in the spring. I never checked the final MC, but it burned great in the fall.

 

[pen]

Batten,

Not that you want to sacrifice it, but I'd be willing to bet a case of beer that if one of those 10 year old splits of ash of yours were set outside in a pile where they received some moisture / wind / sun for a year that it would crack all to hell. I really think getting intermittantly wet on the surface from even dew then getting dried out just does something to the wood that causes cracks. When seasoning outside, I think these cracks help promote further drying. Now, I'm not saying this could get that wood any drier than it is now, but simply become full of cracks.

pen

 

[Thistle]

Batten,

Not that you want to sacrifice it, but I'd be willing to bet a case of beer that if one of those 10 year old splits of ash of yours were set outside in a pile where they received some moisture / wind / sun for a year that it would crack all to hell. I really think getting intermittantly wet on the surface from even dew then getting dried out just does something to the wood that causes cracks. When seasoning outside, I think these cracks help promote further drying. Now, I'm not saying this could get that wood any drier than it is now, but simply become full of cracks.

pen

Precisely. Just look what happens to any wood on your deck thats horizontal & exposed to alternate periods of rain,sun & wind.Also any other outside millwork on house,shed & your outdoor furniture.Even if its painted or stained.

 

[oldspark]

The cracks come from the rapid drying process, when its really cold I do not get so many cracks or if the wood has less moisture in it, I have had some dead oak hardy crack at all.