The most important metric with a firewood log is it’s moisture content. We have discussed this in pages all across this website.
Why is this so important?
It defines ease of burning, heat output and completeness of burn with the serious implications with tarring of flues if you get this wrong.
So how do we measure the moisture content.
I will start with the easiest way, and the one you should adopt.
It does require the purchase of a moisture meter, see examples in the link below:
Moisture meters for firewood on Amazon
Once you have purchased your meter, read the manual carefully as there are often calibration instructions and different settings for different timber species.
So where on a log do you test.
This is the complicated part. Due to the way logs dry (nearly all evaporation comes from the end grain) the centre of logs will always be wetter than the outside.
Bare in mind we are trying to assess the AVERAGE moisture content. So my suggestion is that you split a log lengthways with your axe and measure from the end and the centre.
If its not below 20% on average its not properly kiln dried.
