I'm Pleased As Punch

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Battenkiller

Minister of Fire
Nov 26, 2009
3,741
Just Outside the Blue Line
A couple days ago I went out to my stacks and checked some cherry that was cut and split last November and re-stacked out in the windiest place on my property this spring. Even after several rain showers last week, the outside of the splits averaged 10-11% MC. When I re-split them, they averaged about 12-13% MC in the middle. Dry through and through. I didn't even know my wood could get this dry in my area. I expected 16% as the lowest possible based on the average seasonal RH reported in my area. It was a pretty dry and windy spring until recently, so that was likely the biggest contributing factor. If my shed wasn't filled with tools, this wood is definitely ready for storage.

I then busted open several large cherry rounds that were bucked about two weeks ago. The ends were already well cracked and the wood was getting seasoned looking. Still, the meter went right to "OL" (overload), indicating that the stuff was over 42% MC (highest possible reading on my meter). I let one of these splits sit for just a couple days and measured the outer surface. It read 16% MC on the same surface that had read "OL" the other day. I re-split it and it read "OL" on the new inner face. That means that even only a few days after being split, the outside of the splits will show a very erroneous MC that will give you the false impression that your wood is drying rapidly. It's not, only the outside is drying fast, the wood just inside this outer layer is a wet as can be. I've always felt this to be true, but it's nice to be able to demonstrate it to myself in concrete terms.

There are no shortcuts when seasoning wood outdoors. Give it time - even cherry and ash - or get yerself a kiln. ;-)
 

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Batten it's been a great drying season here also, I'm going to test some cherry splits at the end of August. They have been stacked since last October.

zap
 
Good info, thx

Black Cherry is abundant on my fencerows, so I get double bubble from cutting them...more hay plus good firewood.

My cut season is from late November (just after sap goes down) toearly March.

I split and stack as cut in shed to use the following winter

My trusty Harbor Freight moisture meter consistently shows well below 20%
 
What moisture meter is that. I have a harbor freight and am always worried that I am going to break off one of the probes when testing...
 
burntime said:
What moisture meter is that. I have a harbor freight and am always worried that I am going to break off one of the probes when testing...
Looks like the one I bought from HF.
 
burntime said:
What moisture meter is that. I have a harbor freight and am always worried that I am going to break off one of the probes when testing...
+1; I have the yellow one (Cen-tech I think) from HF and feel the same way.
 
Glad I have a moisture meter, even though I use it only occasionally. Recently got a pickup load from a tree service guy. Probably about 1/3 cord. He said standing dead Silver Maple...rare in this area...prob'ly a landscape or specimen tree planted years ago. Random length pieces from 2' to 6', and from 3" diameter branches to the ~16" diameter trunk. Most of the smaller diameter stuff looked almost seasoned already...most of it was cracked open the full length of the pieces, and nicely checked on the ends, bark falling off. After cutting to length, when I re-split some of that smaller stuff and stabbed it with my meter, I got about 13%. I thought, man this tree really was dead! Well, when I got into splitting the larger trunk sections, it became evident that the moisture content of this wood varied a good deal from small to large. Rather than just snapping apart with a touch of the wedge, it was stringy all the way through the round. When I stabbed the freshly cut face of a big piece of trunk, I got readings in the 30%'s. Interesting. I never saw the tree, of course, and have no idea what killed it, and looking at the branch wood I can imagine why they decided to take it down, but that trunk wasn't nearly as dead as its branches. Interesting...some of that wood is ready to burn now, while some from the same tree needs a year or so. Rick
 
Battenkiller said:
There are no shortcuts when seasoning wood outdoors. Give it time - even cherry and ash - or get yerself a kiln. ;-)

Very well said.
 
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