# Wood Moisture content?



## Taz575 (Feb 12, 2012)

I have some Hard Maple drying in my basement. According to the little moisture meter I just got, it says it's at 13% + or - 2% accuracy. Is this ready to be cut down into blocks, sealed and dryed out fully?? I just picked up a 14" 4 speed Harbor Freight bandsaw today...for $288 brand new and I need to get the riser kit and blades and stuff.


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## Mike Davis (Feb 19, 2012)

At 13% it should be fine. it should dry out pretty fast at that point. just make sure you get some airflow on them and they will be fine i think.


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## Marko Tsourkan (Feb 19, 2012)

Not sure how sensitive maple is to fast drying (I buy my kiln-dried), but relative humidity (RH) in the winter is very low, so any wood will dry fast. 

For most woods, 13% +/- 2% MC is high and to dry blocks slowly, you might need to seal the ends of re-sawn blocks with wax and let them sit for a few months. Note that in the summer time, relative humidity is higher in the basement, so it might not be a best place to store wood, as the same wood will have MC higher in the basement, than above ground. 

Depending what you are going to use this wood for, maple benefits greatly from stabilizing if used for handles. To send for stabilizing, wood needs to be under 10% MC (I dry mine to under 7%).

M


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## apicius9 (Feb 19, 2012)

When it has sat for a while already, I sometimes stack mine in front of a fan for a few days before I send it in for stabilizing. While 7% is certainly ideal, I hardly ever get anything below 12% out here but it still stabilizes fine. There seems to be a little tolerance there. 

Stefan


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## Taz575 (Feb 19, 2012)

Thanks for the info guys!! Still waiting on my Shed and Riser kit so I can saw these down. The tree was cut a while ago and sat, so it's not fresh Maple. I have some wax to seal the ends and I plan to either make my own small box with a fan in it or see if I can drop them off at my buddies. I have to see if he has any stuff to be stabilized and just do one shipment. It's going to get blocked out and then sent off for stabilizing, or at least the pieces with decent figure. I have like 7 big pieces and some have very little figure in them. 

I've been busy playing with this stuff lately for handles in the mean time!


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