Moisture Meter?

[Pac'em out]

Hi y'all,
What are you using for a moisture meter?  How much should I be looking to spend?  Thanks.

[Stagmitis]

The wagner or lignomat..You can google them. I like the pinless wagner.

[Pat B]

I bought a Lignomat(about $100) years ago and never used it so I traded it a few years back. I generally go by feel and sound as I'm working the wood and by the resistance and springiness of the limbs while tillering.

[Robertfishes]

I hear that the ones Stagmitis recomended are top notch.   I ordered a Extech MO280 pinless last night, hope I like it. I think 3 Rivers sells the mini Ligno moisture meter?

[George Tsoukalas]

Mini Ligno. Available from 3 Rivers. Use it all the time. Right down to the stave's first stringing. When I get a reading that's too high I stop and let the stave dry. Jawge

[Roy Steele]

I always had lots of seasoned staves.As well as putting white wood bows in a hot box while building it.To keep  humitey moisture content down.There they are good good to use as you build your bow but really can't tell you moisture in stave form.The kind with prongs only checks as far as the prongs go in.

[Pac'em out]

I was just reading the TBB and they seem to put a lot of emphasis on moisture content.  I might just play it by ear for now.  

Thank you for the responses.

[Pat B]

Moisture content is an extremely important factor in building selfbows or any wood bows for that matter. Well seasoned wood is the key. I know starting out it can be hard to find well seasoned wood but you can start now saving up for the future. I rarely think about stave moisture content because I have wood seasoning all the time. That has come about because of 25+ years of building wood bows and stockpiling wood. Humidity changes effects wood bow building so the sound and feel of the wood also changes as you work it.
   Once you get used to the workability of specific woods, the sounds of the wood as you work it and the resilience and reaction as you teach wood to bend your natural ability will tell you when to or not stress the wood. A dull sound and feel usually meant too much moisture while crisp sound and snappy feel means dryer wood. These factors can change over a week or two depending of the R/H of your area.

[Robertfishes]

The pinless moisture meter I ordered Thursday night arrived about 20 minutes ago, 44 hours after I ordered it! that was some fast shipping. I quickly read the 1 page of instructions and started checking some 8/4 boards in my office/spare room. First checked was a 7/4 maple board it read 11.2%, 8/4 bocote riser block from OMC was 6.8%, 12/4 Morado block from OMC was 8.9%, 8/4 walnut riser block I got in a trade from 4runr 5.1%, Bubinga riser kit from Binghams 6.9%, 8/4 Black Limba 7.9% and then a couple of Chechen 8/4 boards 35% and 38%. I checked a actionwood riser block and it read 5.6%. I will try to compare this meter against a pin meter in the future, maybe in 2 weeks at the TBOF shoot if one of the wood vendors has one..

[Stagmitis]

Where did you order it from Robert?

[Robertfishes]

Amazon.com, I have never used one before and am not sure how accurate it is... I checked some 8/4 and 10/4 hard Maple and cocobolo boards I bought last December that were stored in a warehouse for 4 years, I got 6.1- 6.5% in the Cocobolo and 4.1 to 5.5% in the Sugar Maple. I plan on taking it to a bow shoot next weekend where there will be wood stave vendors, I want to compare this one against other meters hopefully pin type.

[Pac'em out]

Good idea, Robert.  Let us know how it goes.

[Eric Krewson]

My pinless Wagner has a conversion table for different wood densities. It is factory set on a soft wood like pine so measuring osage gives a different set of readings that must be converted for complete accuracy.

[Robertfishes]

Eric, this one has a paper conversion chart and the unit has a digital scale 0-9 that you scroll up or down as needed, but the chart doesn't have some of the woods I have in stock. I guess I will make a chart based on Specific G's of the woods I have as compared to the ones on the paper chart. Example from supplied chart(by memory)--Hard Maple is a 5 or 6?, Limba is a 6 and Rosewood is a 8. The instruction sheet and spec sheet claims it will read down to 3/4".

[Eric Krewson]

I check a known dry piece of wood and remember the reading. All I need to know now is is, how dry is my next osage stave, as that is all I work with.

[Jason Scott]

Also, like the density factors to keep in mind it is also important to take the readings at the right temperatures. The same sample of wood will read drier at 50 deg than at 80 deg because the wood is less conductive at cooler temps. At least for the pin style testers, I don't know about pinless.