I wanted to add this to the old thread on this topic. I see that thread has been archived. A.I. search engines are improving and data on how to heat treat wood is becoming easier to find on the web. Here are a few examples.
mdpi.com/1999-4907/14/1/73
popularwoodworking.com/techniq...%20hours.
Very interesting. I wonder how much it makes the kitchen/house smell (and good or bad). And what happens with a gas oven.
I bought a short stack of baked ipe fingerboard blanks a couple of years ago, I thought they were a very satisfying alternative to ebony. So, of course, I considered making more myself. The advice I got was to buy a cheap oven dedicated to the process and to keep that oven outdoors and well ventilated when roasting anything because the smoke/smell will permeate your house.
I have not yet picked up a dedicated oven, but am periodically tempted by posts like this... one of these days.
There's a story on how Frank Wakefield attempted to bake his Loar F5 Mandolin. It didn't turn out very well.
quote:
Originally posted by Barnacle JoeVery interesting. I wonder how much it makes the kitchen/house smell (and good or bad). And what happens with a gas oven.
With maple, I've found it to make a somewhat sweet yet strong smell. I can smell hints of a butterscotch or carmel smell.
With yellow birch (only did it once), I think it smelled similar to cat pee.
Both species were done with electric oven.
Please, please, don't put your instrument, or any wood part of it, into a conventional oven! If you do, your pre-war Mastertone, or Loar mandolin, or holy grail dreadnaught is likely to become an expensive piece of firewood. And the wood for a new build will probably have the same ignominious fate.
Torrefaction involves baking the wood at a particular temperature and a particular length of time in an OXYGEN-FREE oven. The lack of oxygen allows the benefits of the heat to work without burning the wood. And I think it's a good bet that the oven in your kitchen, the one you use to bake lasagna and cupcakes, isn't oxygen-free. Better to buy commercially done pre-torrefied wood than try any home brewed efforts.
That having been said, I should add that the torrefaction process is a truly worthwhile process, at least with soundbox instruments like guitar and mandolin (and maybe fiddles; I'm not sure about that). I'm also not sure there's a huge benefit for banjos, but there might be some. In my experience torrefaction dramatically shortens the playing-in time, and in fact can make a brand new instrument have the sound of a well played instrument.
But please, let the professionals do the torrefaction process!
About 25 years ago, Rick Turner and I did some experiments using a microwave oven that were promising but no one was really interested at the time.
quote:
Originally posted by calicoplayerPlease, please, don't put your instrument, or any wood part of it, into a conventional oven! If you do, your pre-war Mastertone, or Loar mandolin, or holy grail dreadnaught is likely to become an expensive piece of firewood. And the wood for a new build will probably have the same ignominious fate.
Torrefaction involves baking the wood at a particular temperature and a particular length of time in an OXYGEN-FREE oven. The lack of oxygen allows the benefits of the heat to work without burning the wood. And I think it's a good bet that the oven in your kitchen, the one you use to bake lasagna and cupcakes, isn't oxygen-free. Better to buy commercially done pre-torrefied wood than try any home brewed efforts.
That having been said, I should add that the torrefaction process is a truly worthwhile process, at least with soundbox instruments like guitar and mandolin (and maybe fiddles; I'm not sure about that). I'm also not sure there's a huge benefit for banjos, but there might be some. In my experience torrefaction dramatically shortens the playing-in time, and in fact can make a brand new instrument have the sound of a well played instrument.
But please, let the professionals do the torrefaction process!I agree. The thought of someone putting a nice instrument in the oven is heartbreaking. For banjos my thoughts are mostly about neck wood. My nephew put a Warmouth roasted maple neck on a Squire guitar and the improvement was very obvious. I worked with a professional who believed that a thorough warping with aluminum foil pryor to heat was sufficient to create a low oxygen environment. I hope to experiment with foil verses a gas chamber on some cheap wood.
I don't know if it's true or not, but years ago I was told that a local man had heard so much about how much instruments built with submerged wood sounded, that he soaked his guitar in a bathtub full of water. The results were not impressive. He found that it sounded much better when it was in one piece! :)
Hi all - I roast wood for banjo bridges and parts regularly. I've got it down pretty good at this point.
You don't need an oxygen free environment for thermally modifying wood. Fallen Lumber in Baltimore does this in a normal wood drying kiln at commercial scale. fallenlumber.com/shop-thermal-oak
The thought on this is that we are thermally modifying with the Maillard reaction (the same one that turns sugar to caramel) and not Torrefaction. This also explains why higher sugar woods get browner.
I got a used CONVECTION oven and have it on my back porch because the smell in the house is unbearable for more than just an experiment.
The key for me is increasing the temp in stages. More info is in my archived thread here: banjohangout.org/topic/396111
BTW - thermally modified black locust looks great for fretboards
euler357 , Thanks for that, The gentleman who showed me the aluminum foil trick prefers a convection oven as well.
Edited by - Maurice McMurry on 02/12/2025 04:18:44
Judging from a few recently manufactured lower grade instruments I've bought "roasted" seems to be the new buzz word for tinted varnish...
