Trust the moisture meter?

[Ditchmonkey]

I've always heard how important it is to season wood for two years. I cut a fir on my property over the winter and chopped and stacked it in March or so. It seems very dry already, and my Stihl moisture meter puts it at about 17% moisture. Is it common for wood to season so quickly?

 

[TheAardvark]

Softwoods dry pretty fast, so its probably pretty accurate.

 

[cygnus]

I don't get any fir but 4 months seems reeeaallly quick to dry that much. Make sure you split a piece and measure in the middle of the fresh surface. That's where the moisture will be the highest and give you the best reading. Taking a reading on a surface that's been exposed since March will be artificially low.

 

[HisTreeNut]

+1 on double checking the inside of a fresh split, Regardless, fir being a little pitchy, will take a little longer to season, I think.

 

[red oak]

If you measured on a freshly split face I would believe it. I haven't burned fir but softwoods here can season over a summer if stacked properly and split.

 

[BigFir]

Yep, it seasons fast! Most of the dead standing fir I cut are already <20%. Depending on your location in Oregon you could get some nice dry heat as well?

 

[Seanm]

The green fir that I c,s,s February 2015 was right around 20% by late winter early spring 2016 but I had tried some earlier on and wasnt happy with it until later that season. I know wood doesnt dry much in the winter especially where its well below freezing for months on end like here but mine seemed to. So I guess for my area it needs a good year from green if not a bit longer. I can get green lodgepole pine (less dense than doug fir) to dry in one season but usually have enough standing dead that I dont have to bother. I agree @BigFir standing dead fir is nice to find. I found one of those this year, almost half a cord worth.

 

[Sprinter]

I don't get any fir but 4 months seems reeeaallly quick to dry that much. Make sure you split a piece and measure in the middle of the fresh surface. That's where the moisture will be the highest and give you the best reading. Taking a reading on a surface that's been exposed since March will be artificially low.

Agree with this. Four months for Douglas Fir (assuming it was a live, green tree, sounds very short. It's taken much longer than that for me. But if you have done it right on a freshly open split in the center, then I'd be inclined to go with it, especially if other indications seem good also (dry to your cheek, light weight, sounds dry when struck together, etc. Proper stacking, small splits, plenty of good air flow through the stacks, etc, can all make a big difference. Just be sure you make a new split every time you measure.

PS. Did you take a reading on a brand new, green split to establish a start point with the meter?

FWIW, I also burn other species of large fir stumps from a nearby Christmas tree farm which is mostly Noble and Grand fir. They take much less time to dry. Four or five months can do it for that fir.

 

[Seanm]

FWIW, I also burn other species of large fir stumps from a nearby Christmas tree farm which is mostly Noble and Grand fir. They take much less time to dry. Four or five months can do it for that fir.

Good point. We dont know if it was a non fir like doug fir or less dense true fir....

 

[blacktail]

Smaller and/or fast growing fir will season very fast. I had one from my property that was about a foot thick at the stump and had really wide growth rings. Within a few months the splits felt like chunks of styrofoam.
The big, old firs I've cut had tight growth rings and needed a full year. I got one from a neighbor's property a few years ago that was 30" at the butt. I got it and had it split in December, and burned it a year later. I don't think I put a meter on it, but it honestly could have used more time.