I'm too stupid for firewood (identification help)

[Hermio]

This one works fine for me
https://www.harborfreight.com/digital-mini-moisture-meter-67143.html

That is really cheap.

 

[Michael E]

I use a similar model and it works just fine. At least for firewood purposes, don't know about cabinet making.

 

[kyle1!]

He is just thinking too hard. Cut the tree into rounds, split the round, stack the splits and let time do its thing. When the wood turns grey with split or cracked ends it is ready to burn. This works for me.

 

[Hermio]

He is just thinking too hard. Cut the tree into rounds, split the round, stack the splits and let time do its thing. When the wood turns grey with split or cracked ends it is ready to burn. This works for me.

It will not turn gray if it is not exposed to sun, but can still be dried if under a roof. Also, wood that is rained on will still turn gray if exposed to sun, but it may not be very dry. How dry it should be also depends on the intended use. I have a Tulikivi thermal mass storage fireplace, and its efficiency is maximized by burning dry wood as rapidly as possible, so that as much heat is transferred to the thermal mass as possible while minimizing the amount of air going up the chimney. Wood stove users may prefer a slower burn.

 

[Section VIII]

This is the one I used when I was a home inspector and purchased for personal use after. The prongs/tips are replaceable. Purchased from Lowe's or Home Depot.

 

[Hermio]

This is the one I used when I was a home inspector and purchased for personal use after. The prongs/tips are replaceable. Purchased from Lowe's or Home Depot.

View attachment 1224980View attachment 1224981View attachment 1224982

6.5%! Nice, dry wood! Do you live in a desert? 15% seems to be the norm for air-dried wood in the midwest, though some of my wood gets to 8% when exposed to sun but covered from rain.

 

[Section VIII]

6.5%! Nice, dry wood! Do you live in a desert? 15% seems to be the norm for air-dried wood in the midwest, though some of my wood gets to 8% when exposed to sun but covered from rain.

Delaware...but we were in drought conditions for several months prior. I had just brought a couple bag loads from outside on the wood rack to stack it in the inside wood rack.

The meter has a +/- 2% error margin for wood.

 

[Fried Chicken]

 

[chainbrake]

This may be a difficult chart to use as you will never get to 8% (absolute dryness) moisture content by cutting and stacking wood that you can measure one accurate cubic foot. That said, you can use this info to gain a relative feel as to the weight of various species that are dried.
https://www.woodify.ca/wiki/wood-sp...yOz0r3B8GsQOTc2YcJCVIJmVjerWGujWjjIdsK_rCOLtU

Personally, I look for checks (cracks) in the wood ends, check for relative lightness, and I tap the wood. Generally speaking, the dryer the wood the higher the pitch. If I drop it on the concrete and it plinks instead of plunks, it is usually pretty dry. If the wood has been allowed to get a little punky/spongy due to to much moisture, then this tapping/dropping method can be inaccurate.

In my woodshop, I always like to continually rotate through 1-1.5 months of fully-seasoned wood stacked near but more than 4' away from the stove through the course of the winter so that wood gets really dry before I put it in the stove. The new wood always adds noticeable humidity to the shop for about 3 days when I bring it in about 1/4 cord at a time. 1/4 cord usually lasts 10-12 days. I start mixing in hardwood when the temps fall below -5C. I go full hardwood when temps are in the -10 and below ranges. I burn softwood, small diameter (branch wood) and shorts (log ends) the rest of the time.

 

[chainbrake]

 

[chainbrake]

 

[firewood burner]

What makes good firewood? What's the difference between dried, seasoned, and weathered?

I had some firewood that was seasoned, but the firewood rack was sprayed by a a sprinkler the whole time and that caused the wood to turn very lightweight and rot out... I think.

I took all those pieces and put them in the fire pit, thinking they were useless. Fortunately I didn't actually light the firepit, b/c when I took some of those and put them in the fireplace, I got some serious heat and happiness out of them.

Then I had some split logs/pieces.... those were more substantial in weight, but difficult to light and stank and crackled when burned. Those were what I thought were the "proper" pieces.

Then there were just the regular dry logs that had sat for ages and burned fine.

I can't believe I actually have to ask this... I feel like a *******.

any wood but pine is good firewood