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Bought some lovely pieces of driftwood today, and tomorrow I'd like to bake them. Afterall, it takes less time than soaking it, right? Is it just as good as soaking? Thing is, I don't know HOW to bake driftwood.... so...someone walk me through this, please? Thanks

(I really don't want to burn my house down )

Baking the wood is for steralization purposes which I reccomend if you've gotten your piece yourself from a lake or stream. If you bought it from the LFS it's not as necessary.

I baked mine @150F without having it burn the house down for around an hour or so, it does make a ...well... "interesting" smell in the house...least mine did.
After baking you will still have to soak it to release tannins and to get it to sink...the only reason to bake is if it wouldnt' fit on the stove to boil for 20 minutes. Boiling for too long can cause the cell walls to break down faster (think of overcooked veggies ). Soaking in hot water to release the tannins and cause it to sink can be done for as long as necessary.

^_^
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Oh, I got it at an LFS. I thought baking was just a faster way to soak... darn. Last timeI soaked driftwood it too Forever and still made my water cloudy. How long do you think is average to do this for a medium-smallish piece (bout a foot long)? Also, it's attatched to slate, so the sinking won't be an issue, I hope.

smantzer
Not wanting to step on Babelfish toes. I have never been in favour of baking timber. The main reason is that the temperature that you would have to get to sterilize completly through would certainly do some structural damage to the timber. My reasons for against treating timber is my knowledge of timber 10 years in the trade and then 26 years teaching timber technology.

I am not saying it can not be done but I am saying to do it satisfactoraly it would do some damage to the timber.

All I have ever done is soak it and regually change the water. The last piece took over one month and was still leaching tannins when it went into the tank. It will depend on the species of timber as to the amount of tannins and colour coming out of the timber. This can be quickly cleaned by a good filtration system.

Keith

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how much did you pay for this piece??? check w/ the place you got it to see if it's pretreated, and it should sink anyways since it's on the slate, i know all the pieces up here that are on slare already are pre-treated and tannen free

Daka

I got it from a place (that everyone knows about...a fish place... ) and it took me an hour to drive ther, so I dont know how easy it'll be to go back and check... Given their reputation, I'd assume they'd only sell good quality stuff, but assuming can be bad so I'll soak it anyway.