Tis the season for merriment, delight, and cooking wood.  No, I haven’t been hitting the egg nog too hard, but I did read a great article in popular woodworking recently.  It turns out you can roast some hardwoods in your oven and get a lot of great effects out of them.  I started with cherry (left) and maple (right).

It turns out they couldn’t all fit in my oven.  I might have to get a rib rack or something to stand them all up next time.

In they went for 4 hours at 360F.  There was an odd smell, and a mild smoke that was given off in the process.  Luckily the weather was good enough to have the doors open.  I wouldn’t attempt this if you don’t have some means of ventilation.

The results were quite striking.  Everything got darker, but it didn’t do so evenly.  Some boards have a really neat gradient across them.  The insides are a bit lighter than the surface, but not a lot.  The cherry is my favorite!

Maple

Cherry

One issue with using roasting wood is warpage.  I left them to re-stabilize in the shop for a few weeks before working with them.  Regardless, they were warped and twisted, and had a lot of internal stresses on the table saw.  Be really careful when cutting and make sure the splitter is properly in place.

I should be posting a project soon that used up some of these beauties.