I was recently watching a woodworking video where an experienced woodworker inferred that kiln dried lumber will never get back to the moisture level of air dried lumber, even after decades of sitting around. He mentioned that it stays in the 6-8% range instead of 12% like air dried wood.
This doesn't seem to make sense. I would think wood at 6% moisture, placed in an area with 12% moisture, would get back up to 12% over the years. Does kiln drying chemically alter the wood and prevent this from happening, or was this individual incorrect?
Along these lines, it was also mentioned that air dried wood "moves more" and is less suitable for furniture in today's modern, humidity controlled homes (inference was that there is a lower moisture content in the air in the house, presumably more toward 6% than 12%). All this sounded a little sketchy to me, more like marketing hype than reality, so I wanted to get some real-world opinions.
Thanks in advance for the replies,
Andy