Fresh-cut BL moisture %?

[bluedogz]

Cut a mess of BL today, and just for kicks and grins put the meter to it.

In this photo:
month-old rounds at bottom of stack: 35% MC
rounds felled Thursday and cut this morning: Range from 15% to 35% MC

I don't need to burn yet and wasn't planning on burning this batch till next year, but this really wide range got my attention. Is the sample supposed to be this wide?

 

[gzecc]

Ive only measured a few times and think I found about 33%mc when fresh cut.

 

[rdust]

I've only cut it a time or two and have never seen the low readings that everyone talks about. I cut some last summer(2010), I just checked a 6" round a month or so ago and it was still in the high 30's.

 

[Kenster]

Bluedogz, you are measuring from the INSIDE of a fresh SPLIT, right? Not the ends of a fresh cut round. I don't see any splits in your pictures. You don't measure from the ends. You have to measure a fresh split and put the probes in line with the grain, not perpendicular with the grain.

 

[laynes69]

I've cut locust that was sopping wet and bone dry. A good healthy locust has a bit of moisture in the wood. It's the large ones that are half dead that contain moisture extremes from one part to another.

 

[krex1010]

I got some bl this year and i was splitting it within a couple weeks of it being cut and the mc was averaging 27%. Thats about as low as i have ever seen fresh cut wood

 

[bluedogz]

Bluedogz, you are measuring from the INSIDE of a fresh SPLIT, right? Not the ends of a fresh cut round. I don't see any splits in your pictures. You don't measure from the ends. You have to measure a fresh split and put the probes in line with the grain, not perpendicular with the grain.

Er... no. Ends of the rounds. Mea culpa.

 

[Stax]

38% MC BL freshly split just a week ago.

 

[wood-fan-atic]

The fresh cut BL that Ive recently gotten from Irene rang in around 39% (trunk). I love Bl b/c by this time next year, it'll be 15%-17%.

 

[bluedogz]

OK, ok... I split one and got 31%, so by next year that'll be some nice warmness.