Ash age hardening ?

[cornish wood burner]

I think a lot of these low moisture readings are false, when you consider that the typical moisture content of timber flooring laid over heating elements is 9%. *

 

* Desch and Dinwoodie, Timber - Structure, Properties, Conversion and Use 7th. Edition - Macmillan 1996.

Definitely inaccurate in my experience. Most electrical conductivity/ pin type

I have come across (including our works one ) are reasonable in the middle range but seem to stray in the high and low ranges.

I have calibrated mine and between 20 and 38% it's fairly accurate. However above and below that zone it's fantasy land. Presumably useful for selling impressively dry firewood though.

As Stubby says useful for making a comparison, but for an accurate reading weigh and dry.

[se7enthdevil]

5% is very low unless you are in a desert. It might have needed longer cooking. Even in the last hour of 24 in the oven at around 60 to 80 deg C my 480 gram piece still lost 2 grams.

 

well it's still next to the fire so if it loses any more then i'll know about it.

 

the oak has not even been in that windy a place so i was quite surprised that it's only lost 30g but i'm doing the same with a few more samples and getting similar results.

 

i've got some 5" cubes of beech that i expect to be fairly wet as they were only milled in march/april and left in builders bags and i've weighed one of them so i'll see how much weight it's lost by tomorrow as i've left it in front of the fire since 5pm.

[cornish wood burner]

well it's still next to the fire so if it loses any more then i'll know about it.

 

the oak has not even been in that windy a place so i was quite surprised that it's only lost 30g but i'm doing the same with a few more samples and getting similar results.

 

i've got some 5" cubes of beech that i expect to be fairly wet as they were only milled in march/april and left in builders bags and i've weighed one of them so i'll see how much weight it's lost by tomorrow as i've left it in front of the fire since 5pm.

Unless you can up the temperature my guess would be it will take a few days beside a fire. I dry the softwood chip in an old microwave at work. If you are impatient and the kitchen management is not looking that's a quicker way. However anyone doing that a must be very careful not to over do it. Quick blast for a few minutes, take it out, let it steam and weigh it. As it gets warmer reduce power or time and check the weight loss. Eventually it will stop losing weight unless you over do it, in which case you will have had a fire. Not something I would recommend in a good microwave.

[se7enthdevil]

well after another night next to the fire it's not lost any more weight.

 

when i say it's next to the fire i don't mean it's in front of it. there is a 4" gap either side of the stove which gets too hot to leave your hand in for more than a second and that's where it's been. it splits and cracks the wood alot when i put slightly damp lumps in the gap to dry before they go in the fire.

 

 

my beech block is still losing weight and is 60 grams down and i expect it to lose a bit more yet.

[cornish wood burner]

I think a lot of these low moisture readings are false, when you consider that the typical moisture content of timber flooring laid over heating elements is 9%. *

 

* Desch and Dinwoodie, Timber - Structure, Properties, Conversion and Use 7th. Edition - Macmillan 1996.

 

I've just cut a hole in my oak floor for a hearth and it came out at 9.2%. Some underfloor and some heat from the Rayburn the other side of the wall, so D&D seem to know their timber.

[Aunt Maud]

It's a good book, but a bit dry <Meh!>. So maybe bedtime reading, to send you to the Land of Nod.