Bone Dry Wood

[old sarge]

I just checked on my wood supply - oak, hickory, alder, apple, getting some ready for my son to take home. Moisture reading was flat, zip, nothing.  Going to rehydrate in stages to get it up around 10 to 15%. I have run water over wood in the past a couple of hours before using but readings were in the 5% range before hydration.  But this dry? Any ideas?

 

[stout]

i don't know how well it would work but nothing to lose i figure

do you have a vac sealer? put some wood in a bag with some water and vac seal it over night or so and see what happens

 

[old sarge]

Got one and it is worth a try. Thanks.

 

[MTSmokin]

Let us know how this turns out.  I have to buy my smoking wood (Smokinlicious) and I'm sure it will be way low on the moisture scale before I use it all.  I need to figure out how to store it so it keeps it's moisture since the climate here is very dry.

 

[old sarge]

Will do.

 

[AlinMA]

Hi Sarge.....
I have had varying degrees of success by placing the dry wood in a zip-lock bag with a wet rag and sealing it. I was able to get the wood into the 10 to 15% range. The down side is that it takes some time.
Stout's suggestion piqued my interest so I tried it with some Mesquite. I placed 5 chunks in a bag along with a wet rag and sealed it. 12 hours later I opened it and checked the moisture content and found readings ranging from 5 to 25 % with the lower readings on the side opposite the wet rag. Bottom line .....I think that going with a larger rag( maybe 1/3 the size of a face-cloth) and letting it sit in the vacuum for 24 hours would get enough moisture penetration to solve the problem.
As an aside....Great idea Stout!

 

[prudentsmoker]

I have the jar sealer attachment and have put wood in half-gallon jars with water and vacuumed.