Hi there, recently we bought a walnut slab at a live edge warehouse and brought it back to work on it. Upon starting to plane it, we realized it was still wet so we got a moisture meter and tested it to be around 17-22% moisture levels.
When we went back to the store, we were told any live edge place sells wood with moisture around 15%
Can anyone verify this? We feel like we got screwed with this purchase (which was $275) since we can’t really continue with the project until the wood dries months from now.
I have a Wagner pinless moisture meter and I take it with me when I buy wood. If you buy from a place like Woodworld or Rockler it should all be under 12% or lower. If you buy from a sawmill its often green and above 30% but you get it at a big discount. I’ll tell you some of the smaller places use cheap moisture meters that are totally inaccurate. Where did you buy from?
Yeah lesson learned for sure. Went to Live Edge Dallas. Wouldn’t recommend anyone go there cause we tried to take back the wood and they refused to refund the money and instead give us some scrap wood in exchange.
We had a moisture meter?
But the luckily you’re not too far off from where you need to be you only around 10% off which may sound like a lot but if you set up a simple diy kiln it took it to any number of facilities around dfw that have vacuum kilns you should be able to start working on it within the end of month( linger if using diy kiln)
I feel like I’m somewhat qualified to chime in here. I run a sawmill and do all my own cutting, drying, and selling . My slabs get sold kiln dried, air dried, and rarely green (customers are always informed). Prices are in the range of $10/bdft for almost all woods, with walnut being an exception at $15/bdft.
17-22% for a slab is fairly high, especially if they did not tell you when you were buying it that it was still green.
This is close to true. You can read about equilibrium moisture content in this great paper from the USDA on air-drying lumber, but in the Dallas area it’s generally 11-14% depending on ambient conditions. This means that if it is not in a conditioned environment and it is dried, it will measure between 11 and 14% MC, depending on time of the year. Even if it’s kiln dried to a lower %, if you expose it back to the elements it will go back up - wood is like a sponge.
Slabs are kind of a different beast from dimensioned lumber. You’re typically not doing intricate joinery which doesn’t require the increased stability of kiln drying. I have sold hundred of slabs, predominately air-dried, and encourage my customers to know if they have ANY issues related to the moisture content or drying. So far I’ve only had issues with extra ornery log (it was a pecan crotch).
I’m happy to answer any questions or challenges to my processes
@mchou93 I have a solar kiln and could get your piece into a workable condition quite a bit faster than air-drying. It depends on the conditions, but I would guess I can get it to equilibrium or below in 2-4 weeks. I’d do it for $25.
Unsolicited recommendation here, I had @Lloyd_Plum mill some stuff for me a while back. He was great to work with, did the cuts quickly, and accurately, and best of all at a reasonable price.
