Sorry George, I cut some of the carob and it is certainly not dead. 21 percent on my moisture meter on the surface of the freshly cut face.
Hi Sharon,
No need to apologise, I can't be always correct even though the pics tell me a slight different story...!
When I say "green/live wood" it means wood from an alive tree, most moisture meters will read the green woods, at about 38% to 40%. When a tree die, and loses all its leaves and bark start to dry and break apart, the wood inside is called dead wood, nature will take some time to totally dry the wood right to rotten/dust even if the tree stay standing up which most time, is knocked down by wind or fall under its own inability to support its own weight.
So, if a tree dies, and the wood becomes dead wood, the moisture content in the wood on cutting/processing, will depend upon many factors, time since the tree died, climate, it still standing or on the ground, etc...!
You are not going to find that many woods that will read zero (0)% on a moisture meter, measuring its MC% content by inserting the meter probes into the outer surface of an old log, is not accurate, you need to expose the log wood by slicing it however, you have to also remember that, any wood dead or alive, fresh or old, will maintain a higher % of moisture at its centre so, when you slice a log/slab/thick board in half, the "FRESH" wood will always ready higher MC% content, and will continued to do so until the wood stabilizes to atmospheric ambient temps, or in a simple language, when the wood is exposed to air for a little while, sometimes a day is all its needed so, if you probe the Ironwood on a fresh cut and close to its pith, you will read more than zero (0)
So, the 21% MC you just read, is a proof that, the wood is dead and not green anymore, it has lost a considerable amount of moisture because the tree that log come from, has stopped to be live, for some time...!
I hope this makes sense to you...!
If the wood measures 21% MC at its centre/fresh cuts, that wood will measure 15% or less in a week or two, particularly if you slice the wood into oversized pen blanks, that wood is already half dry so, getting it to the average workable MC% of approx. 10% or so, won't take long.
You have also to consider the possibility that the wood is wet, by being expose to rain or other, in these few months...!
This is not a matter of who is right or who is wrong, I simply made some suggestions based upon my observation of the pics you shared with us, and my experience in these issues however, not being able to actually test/examine the wood with my own hands and eyes, is always a margin for error...!:wink::biggrin:
Either way, if you have enough of the Ironwood to around, I would like to swap one half log with any of my woods you may be interested on...!
PS: Actually, having a slice that matches the size of a small flat rate box, is all I would need...!
Cheers
George
:wink:
