Drying some wood

[bengoshi47]

Last week I was fortunate to get some wood from a white oak tree that as inside Clemson University's Memorial(football) stadium. I have several people wanting "Clemson" pens for Christmas but I need to dry the wood before I stabilize it, can't wait for it to dry naturally, so I was thinking about using my food dehydrator(it has a fan and thermostat) to dry some pen blanks. Anyone ever try this or know why it would not work?

 

[SDB777]

Microwave will dry it. Just YouTube for the process.
DNA bath will dry it too.
Dehydrator works, not familiar with that process due to expense. White Oak has corrosive qualities to dehydrators, so most people that have them won't near the stuff(unless they have unlimited funds).



Scott (oh boy, oh boy) B

 

[low_48]

White oak does not dry easily. The cells are blocked, that's why wine barrels don't leak. So too much heat will crack it. Go with the microwave, and keep a good weight chart. Many don't weigh the water loss, and end up with too many cycles. That's when you smell smoke!

 

[Don Farr]

Alcohol

I'm not sure about a white oak pen blank but I have had some success with the alcohol soak method for bowls.