This is a picture I took today. The tree was felled about Feb 1, was sawn within that week and has been outside since.


It has dried about 1/2" around the perimeter, to something below the fiber saturation point. The cell lumens, or cavities, have lost the free water that filled them, the cell walls still contain bound water.

The core of the timber is obviously saturated, moisture doesn't go down in winter. It is also frozen. I would bet the dry edge is also how deep the timber has thawed on any given day.

Also look at the left hand waney edges, I had not removed the bark. Notice how little drying has occured there. In warmer weather bluestain thrives at moisture contents above ~25%, getting the surface drier than that helps prevent it. Getting the bark off helps dry the faces below that point faster.

You can also see how a shell that is shrinking over a still saturated core is setting up checking stresses.