Avoid Wet Wood Disasters - Wagner Pinless Moisture Meters

Read Time: 4 mins

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One of the downsides of working with wood is that it has the ability to absorb and release moisture, which means the wood can expand and contract. This can, and does, create major problems with some woodworking projects ... but there are ways to help reduce some of the challenges. The first thing we need to do is work with wood where we know what the moisture content of the wood is to begin with.

For many woodworking projects, a general rule of thumb is to only use wood with a moisture content around 9 %. This can vary depending on climatic conditions, but it's at least a good starting point. It is not unusual for freshly cut trees to have a moisture content in excess of 35%, so there is a LOT of water in the trees that need to be evaporated out, which in turn makes the wood we work with much more stable. It will still absorb and release moisture, but by the time it gets down to 9% these changes should be much more subtle.

How to Fix Woodworking Mistakes - Episode 1

Read Time: 5 mins

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The nature of wood is ever changing and sometimes it is hard to use, other times easy but in most cases it is pretty forgiving, especially when it comes with inherent defects that either formed by the tree it'self, of were created by other elements like rot, insects or other burrowing animals or things. Luck for us, many of these things can be fixed one way or another.

The degree to how much or how little of a "fix" is required depends on many things from the woodworker to the intended use of the project and ... in many cases, you will find there are can be a few different ways of fixing these defects and it all depends on how much effort and expense that a project deserves.