how could this be?

[Den Socling]

We unloaded some 12/4 walnut slabs today. My kilns are backed up so I was in a hurry. Even though it was highly figured, I dried it in 8 days. Since I dried it so quickly, I was checking the MC of each slab. First I'll show you what worked.



 



 



 

All of the above were very close to 7%. Then I came to this one. It was rotten and tunneled by ants. I wasn't even going to check MC.



 



 



 

Would you believe that my Wagner 612 tells me that this slab is 15%?

[longtime lurker]

Change in electrical resistance due to the rot maybe so its a meter issue?

Sucked up outside air fast due to rot maybe? I've had a problem there pulling wood from kiln "hot" to reduce cycle times and as its cooled it sucked up moisture like a sponge... picked up like 3% moisture between hot and cold in about two hours and it wasnt due to me not applying adequate corrections for temp. Delmhorst meter with pins and I trust the thing give or take half a percent.
I imagine the nature of rotten wood would make it even more porous to such.

Heater plate damage or internal blockage of the pipe so its got a cold spot? Yours runs on internally circulated hot water from memory doesnt it?

Just seems weird that the slab that should be the quickest drying is the wet one.

[Den Socling]

Wagners are capacitance meters so resistance isn't a factor.

And you are thinking like me. The slab that should have dried quickest was the wet one.

[Den Socling]

And I was almost equally surprised that the highly figured areas were dry. I did 3 things differently than I normally do with 12/4 walnut. Now I have to figure out if the dry and unchecked figure was due to one of the 3 or the combination of the 3.

[Den Socling]

I'm still intrigued by this board. It is about 15" wide without counting the ant chewed wood. I took the Wagner and started taking readings across the board. I moved the meter in increments of one inch or less. Here are the readings. 14.9, 12,6, 13.2, 13.4, 14.0, 14.5, 15.0, 13.7, 9.4 Can you imagine going from 14.9 to 12.6 or 13.7 to 9.4 in less than an inch? A really weird piece of wood. I'll have to stick it with the Delmhorst.

[longtime lurker]

Drop a straight edge on it for level? If it was cupped due to tension, or real rough sawn surface... the heater plate might not have had good contact with it.

How did the board on the opposite side of that plate read? What im thinking is that if the other board in contact with that plate is evenly dry then you can rule out it being a plate issue and its got to be the board.
It is an intriguing issue.

[Den Socling]

We ran it through a planer so it is perfectly flat. I should have added that there are a couple other slabs that are apparently from the same log. They have decay and ant tunnels. I didn't analyse them like this one but a quick check got them kicked out for being wet.
We were busy loading 12/4 Sinker Cypress today and I was near the wet walnut. If you pick them up, they sure don't feel wet. I took my Delmhorst and got a couple stick readings. That only added to the mystery. Some indicated wet wood and some readings indicated dry wood.
I know no more today than I did 2 days ago. We have been really busy lately but I have wondered about this darn walnut.

[longtime lurker]

Okay so I ran it past the walking encyclopedia of weird and wonderful obscurities you find in a lifetime of working with wood (my dad)

Dock a strip off an end thats showing the MC anomalies, test with your meters, then rip it into samples and oven dry them and get actual MC.
If... if the meters are both out and your samples are actually consistently dry within reason but showing large meter variations then the tree was probably lightening struck.

If the meters are correct and its dried in patches... if you figure it out he wants to know why.

[Den Socling]

Now that is interesting. Lightening struck is not something I ever considered. I wonder what a lightening strike could do. It was apparently standing dead so this is a possibility.

Cutting MC samples will be very hard. Like I said earlier, moving the Wagner an inch (25.4 mm for you) can make a difference of a couple percent.

[pineywoods]

Lightening strikes can do some strange things to wood. A heavy strike will literally flash internal moisture to steam, bound water vs free water ?? I get lightening killed syp where the wood in the butt log is harder than most hardwood. Never tried the moisture meter on any of it, next time I saw one, I'll measure the moisture content. It's a moot question with me because it all gets air dried anyway..

[Den Socling]

Now this is really interesting. Water instantly flashed to steam. What would that do? SYP hard as hardwood. I'll be darn. I bet you guys have come up with the answer.

[longtime lurker]

Theres a couple young guys having a heck of a lot of fun (and doing a really good marketing job on some really unique stuff) in Victoria, Australia. They trade as Thunderstruck Industries. Basicly what they do is apply electricity to timber and scorch it.

Not closely related but... interesting, and unique, and I wish them well. Checkout the video of the electrical burning process which is food for thought on this because of how the ele finds the path of least resistance, and how it might give rise to variable readings for moisture. Of course they're playing with 10k volts, not a couple million... :D

https://www.facebook.com/pg/thunderstruckindustries/videos/?ref=page_internal

[Den Socling]

Actually, I really like much of their work. The rotten, hollow blue-gum really turned out nice!

[Den Socling]

If you haven't looked at the Thunderstruck site yet, here is why you should.



 



 

I'll have to look around for a 10kV transformer!

[bucknwfl]

On small pieces a microwave transformer will work. Yes all this is very interesting and gives you lots of point to ponder

Thanks

Buck

[LeeB]

Not knowing a thing about what I'm talking about, I'll through out there bacterial content in the rot containing pieces?

[Magicman]

Just curious, is the growth ring spacing the same on both pieces of wood?

[Den Socling]

The growth rings are nothing out of the ordinary.

And LeeB bacterial infection is surely possible but I dry bacteria infected oak all of the time with no problem.

To keep it from driving me nuts, I have written it off as lightening struck.  :D

[longtime lurker]

Guess its one of the advantages of being vertically integrated - I can pretty much backtrack a pack of timber back to a stand of trees and with anything odd enough to stand out as a log we can often go back to the actual stump. Makes it easier to reconcile cause and effect.

[Den Socling]

Our baseball bat customers do something like that. They color code the ends of billets from particular areas. If they end up good, they go back to cutting in that area. If not, they don't.