Thinking about the concept of seasoned wood.
What is it?
Some say below 20% moisture is good, some 12%, etc.
So there is a variable, a seemingly huge one.
Measured with a moisture meter, what does that number represent?
My understanding is a moisture meter measures electrical resistance.
That resistance is an estimate of what?
20% by volume, by weight of total water, by overall weight of the wood (that doesn't make sense)?
My guess is that a hundred pound (round numbers) piece of red oak typically holds X amount of water when freshly cut, and 20% moisture means 80% of X (representing 100% of the water initially present) has evaporated or wicked away.
X, and 20% of X, means what really?
If I had a real number to tell a customer, say this cord of Oak is 20% and has 200 pounds of water, and this cord has...
200/X = 20/12
2400 = 20X
120 = X
this cord has 120 pounds of water at 12% moisture.
80 pounds less water, but those are numbers pulled out of the air as an example.
A customer however might think 80 pounds is a lot of water. It is something, a number one can visualize, as in a 55 gallon drum, plus half another one, going in their fireplace or wood stove...
So what are the real numbers?
So, if that is the case, how much water are we talking, how much water in fluid volume is that 20%?
And, how much water is 12%, or the difference between 20% and 12%?
Then there are other species.
How does that figure in? How much water is in 100 pounds of red oak vs 100 pounds of pine?
It would seem there would be a cubic volume difference of wood to start with, and electrical resistance would be effected.
Part of my interest is that when selling wood, the first question is "Is it seasoned?"
I sell Oak seasoned one year, or twelve months. That answer is quit vague, and I use it on purpose, for this reason.
Some think that is seasoned using the 12 month standard of seasoning.
It is burnable, but not good in a catalytic wood stove.
So I ask if they are using a catalytic stove. If the answer is no, then I leave it alone, and to them to decide.
If the answer is yes, they use a catalytic stove, I suggest they season it themselves another year, or keep looking for another source.
I do not use a moisture meter, and do not make promises about seasoning numbers which I have little to no control over anyway. Every year the seasons are different, along with seasoning. Two years averages it out a little better but I don't have room for that on a large scale.
If they ask what we personally burn, I say a catalytic stove, and point to the 24' x 32' three open sided wood shed with spaced rows of one and two year old oak.
Another part of my interest in understanding seasoning, is possibly getting away from oak, and sell hardwood species that 'season' more quickly than the oaks. Species that retain less water initially if that is the case, or are less dense and season more quickly due to that. Only a few of my customers actually heat continually with wood and would miss oak.
I have been selling firewood for several years now, gradually improving 'seasoning' conditions to enhance the drying of larger quantities of firewood, although still very small scale at sixty plus cord/yr. I've cleared an area for more sun/air; gone to palletizing loose stacked with netting, which means small 1/4 cord bundled quantities with good air flow (similar to firewood bags); and loosely covered on top only to shed snow melt and spring/summer/fall rains that may last a few hours, or a few weeks in southwest Michigan.
Todays rain has paused for a bit, so back to splitting, the first step of seasoning.
What is it?
Some say below 20% moisture is good, some 12%, etc.
So there is a variable, a seemingly huge one.
Measured with a moisture meter, what does that number represent?
My understanding is a moisture meter measures electrical resistance.
That resistance is an estimate of what?
20% by volume, by weight of total water, by overall weight of the wood (that doesn't make sense)?
My guess is that a hundred pound (round numbers) piece of red oak typically holds X amount of water when freshly cut, and 20% moisture means 80% of X (representing 100% of the water initially present) has evaporated or wicked away.
X, and 20% of X, means what really?
If I had a real number to tell a customer, say this cord of Oak is 20% and has 200 pounds of water, and this cord has...
200/X = 20/12
2400 = 20X
120 = X
this cord has 120 pounds of water at 12% moisture.
80 pounds less water, but those are numbers pulled out of the air as an example.
A customer however might think 80 pounds is a lot of water. It is something, a number one can visualize, as in a 55 gallon drum, plus half another one, going in their fireplace or wood stove...
So what are the real numbers?
So, if that is the case, how much water are we talking, how much water in fluid volume is that 20%?
And, how much water is 12%, or the difference between 20% and 12%?
Then there are other species.
How does that figure in? How much water is in 100 pounds of red oak vs 100 pounds of pine?
It would seem there would be a cubic volume difference of wood to start with, and electrical resistance would be effected.
Part of my interest is that when selling wood, the first question is "Is it seasoned?"
I sell Oak seasoned one year, or twelve months. That answer is quit vague, and I use it on purpose, for this reason.
Some think that is seasoned using the 12 month standard of seasoning.
It is burnable, but not good in a catalytic wood stove.
So I ask if they are using a catalytic stove. If the answer is no, then I leave it alone, and to them to decide.
If the answer is yes, they use a catalytic stove, I suggest they season it themselves another year, or keep looking for another source.
I do not use a moisture meter, and do not make promises about seasoning numbers which I have little to no control over anyway. Every year the seasons are different, along with seasoning. Two years averages it out a little better but I don't have room for that on a large scale.
If they ask what we personally burn, I say a catalytic stove, and point to the 24' x 32' three open sided wood shed with spaced rows of one and two year old oak.
Another part of my interest in understanding seasoning, is possibly getting away from oak, and sell hardwood species that 'season' more quickly than the oaks. Species that retain less water initially if that is the case, or are less dense and season more quickly due to that. Only a few of my customers actually heat continually with wood and would miss oak.
I have been selling firewood for several years now, gradually improving 'seasoning' conditions to enhance the drying of larger quantities of firewood, although still very small scale at sixty plus cord/yr. I've cleared an area for more sun/air; gone to palletizing loose stacked with netting, which means small 1/4 cord bundled quantities with good air flow (similar to firewood bags); and loosely covered on top only to shed snow melt and spring/summer/fall rains that may last a few hours, or a few weeks in southwest Michigan.
Todays rain has paused for a bit, so back to splitting, the first step of seasoning.
