Fir Blocks

[nas]

I cut a 10x10x16" piece of fir for my wife because she wants to use it for a stool.  I am wondering if I can set the sap in the oven, and if I can how long, and how hot?

Nick

[SwampDonkey]

I have not done this, but I think 160-200 F would be hot enough. As far as how long, just weight the piece at start and keep weighing periodically every 20 minutes until weight loss is almost hardly noticeable. A moisture meter is handy if you have one, because you probably don't have to go below 12 % MC. Try a sample first, I don't know how much checking you'll experience as you don't have control over the wet bulb temperature (dew point) in a convection oven. ;) It will loose about 45% of it's weight going from an MC of 32% (fibre saturation point) to 12 % MC.