I'm starting to question "seasoned wood"

[karl]

I did a little test today and I was shocked by the results. I have wood that has been stacked and drying for over a year now. It's slab wood, so it's not terribly thick and dries fast. I checked the moisture on some wood new slab wood I just stacked a few weeks ago. The outside of the wood has gone from 30%+ to mostly 15% and single digits on some.

I checked the year old wood and it was single digits on the outside. Some of it read 0. So I split one and measured the center and wow. 25%-30%. I split another piece and the same thing. I wouldn't hesitate to burn this wood right now. Shoot I burnt it last winter and it burned great.

If it's 30% through out when I get it and too wet to burn. 10%-15% on the ends this fall and burns well as it usually does, then what's the point of stacking wood for a year?

 

[Bigg_Redd]

I did a little test today and I was shocked by the results. I have wood that has been stacked and drying for over a year now. It's slab wood, so it's not terribly thick and dries fast. I checked the moisture on some wood new slab wood I just stacked a few weeks ago. The outside of the wood has gone from 30%+ to mostly 15% and single digits on some.

I checked the year old wood and it was single digits on the outside. Some of it read 0. So I split one and measured the center and wow. 25%-30%. I split another piece and the same thing. I wouldn't hesitate to burn this wood right now. Shoot I burnt it last winter and it burned great.

If it's 30% through out when I get it and too wet to burn. 10%-15% on the ends this fall and burns well as it usually does, then what's the point of stacking wood for a year?

Rather than questioning "seasoned wood" you might rather question "moisture meters" and their efficacy

 

[karl]

I thought about that too, but the meter does read progressively higher the closer to the center of the split I go.

 

[wood-fan-atic]

Ive never had occasion to burn slabwood, but I DO know that when splittin' and stackin' cordwood-- one had best dry that fuel in a well ventilated area for a year or so, or y'all gonna be in for a chilly winter.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I did a little test today and I was shocked by the results. I have wood that has been stacked and drying for over a year now. It's slab wood, so it's not terribly thick and dries fast. I checked the moisture on some wood new slab wood I just stacked a few weeks ago. The outside of the wood has gone from 30%+ to mostly 15% and single digits on some.

I checked the year old wood and it was single digits on the outside. Some of it read 0. So I split one and measured the center and wow. 25%-30%. I split another piece and the same thing. I wouldn't hesitate to burn this wood right now. Shoot I burnt it last winter and it burned great.

If it's 30% through out when I get it and too wet to burn. 10%-15% on the ends this fall and burns well as it usually does, then what's the point of stacking wood for a year?

That in bold tells a big story. I've never yet seen wood at 0% moisture. Slab wood anyone should be able to know if it is ready to burn or not without any instrument.

 

[CTYank]

You could help us out here, trying to guess what's going on, by identifying the species of the pieces. IME, slabs of red oak take lots longer to dry than ash or white pine. It's the old apples & oranges thing.

"Seasoned" does not imply "dry."

 

[Woody Stover]

I'm not sure these slabs dry very fast. As I understand it, the moisture leaves through the ends of the split first, but that slows down soon. Then it leaves through the sides of the split, i.e. through the sides of the growth rings, and moisture moves slowest when it's trying to travel from the center out (perpendicular to the growth rings, through successive rings.) In a slab, the moisture has a long way to travel to got to the side of the growth ring. In a normal split, the growth ring segments are much shorter and the moisture can get out faster. I have rapped on some of these slab-type splits with a metal object, and they don't sound very dry at all.
Of course, my theory could be utter bullcrap... :lol:

 

[billb3]

When I was getting long 8 and 10 foot long oak slabs from a pallet maker, I tried just leaving them in a heap, cutting it up and stacking it like firewood and stickering it in long lengths like it was boards to be air dried. I thought treating it like firewood cut to length and stacked would yield the best results, but stickering it did.
Left in a heap made for some rather rotten crap on the bottom.

Unfortunately, I cut most of it up and treated it like firewood for the longest time before I tried stickering it.
Then the pallet making guy stopped making oak pallets. :-(


If it wasn't free slabs I'm not sure if it would have been worth the work and mess.
It was a LOT of bark.