How dry does wood get?

It will aclimatise eventually. Wood we used in the Philippines usually ended up at 18 to20% after kiln drying if left alone. Maybe you gotta live in a desert to get 6%!

-- if the hand is not working it is not a pure hand

Hmmm, I suppose it might not be that low here on the left coast of the US either then. I’ve never thought much about it before. I have always used wood kknown to be dry.

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

Kiln dried wood does adbsorb ambient moisture while being worked and even with the stain is applied at the exposed surface and open grain. Tennessee and Georgia usually has high humidity during the summer time and it will effect the project.
Attached is a good article from the University of Kentucky
http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/for/for55/for55.htm
Also a kiln opreator handbook
http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Dry_kiln_operators_manual.html
University of Missouri
http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/agguides/forestry/g05507.htm

I use a small kiln to keep my project dry while working rifle stocks due to the warpage of the wood can impact the accuracy of the rifle.

United States forresty division put out a phamplet also and it shows the various drying variations around the nation due to the moisture content in the air versus wood and drying allowances.
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr81.pdf

-- Major Walt Timoschuk,III

If you’re in Death Valley, the wood will get down to 2% humidity or less. It just seems to disintegrate into splinters, which is why, I imagine, that the picnic tables are cast concrete or aluminum instead of wood.

Thanks Minuteman, those links pretty well answer the question.

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

I dunno guys. I found that a piece of walnut I’ve been saving turned into a pile of sawdust…and my son also has a new door threshhold. Walnut of all things. I wonder which big box store he got that from?

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

I do live in the desert and if you want to see dry wood… well, I seldom can buy wood from HD or Lowes in the summer time because the stores are air conditioned and as soon as I take the wood to my truck it is already drying; checks, wraps, cups and everything else you can imagine. Wood left outside for the summer gets so dry you have to soak it in water to start a fire with it! ; ) lol

-- Never board, always knotty, lots of growth rings

WOOD WILL DRY TO IT’S EMC .

That’s a good one Kindlingmaker :-))

Thanks for the thoughts boys, the links by Minuteman are quite educational. Looks like dry here on the left coast is wet on the high desert plain and there is no such thing as dry in the midwest ;-))

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

In his book, ” Woodworking Wisdom”, author Nick Engler states, under the topic of “Drying and Stacking”, the following;

“Stack the green lumber on a rack outdoors. Let the “free water” evaporate, seasoning the stack for three to four months during a time when the average temperature is above freezing. Then move the stack to a sheltered, but unheated, location inside a barn, storage shed, or garage to remove the “bound water”. The wood is ready to shop dry when the moisture content drops below 12 percent,”

-- "Heaven is North of the Bridge"