The method I use to dry green pen blanks is microwave drying of the pen blanks.
When I need to dry pens blanks in a very short time, I use the following method.
I have a small Microwave oven I use only for drying wood. I do not use the microwave in the kitchen. I don't think my wife would be very happy if I did.
1. I cut the blanks into blank size usually 3/4" X 5" long.
2. I stack these in a way the air will flow freely around the blank.
3. I weight each blank and write the weight on the side of the blank. I use a digital postal scale. I picked up a scale off ebay for about $25
4. I place 8-9 blanks in the microwave in this fashion.
5. I microwave the blanks on low heat for 2 1/2 minutes.
6. I remove the blanks and the set on top of the microwave to cool.
7. They need to cool for 7-10 minutes.
8. I then weight the blanks again and write new weight on side
9. I go through this process a minimum of 3 times or until these is no longer a weight lost.
10. At this point I let set over night before processing the pen blanks.
Note; the microwave will set the blanks on fire, from the inside.
As you can see from the picture at the right. This blank caught on fire from the inside. I cut it apart and you can see how it burned.
Microwave drying will work must be done with care.
I used this to dry wood for 200 pens. I used this on maple wood blanks that had just been cut.
Please visit my web site for more woodworking infromation. http://nokeswoodworks.com
