Driftwood

[Baos]

So I was out walking my dogs with my dad along the North Saskatchewan river when we spotted two great pieces of driftwood. I might also mention that the water looks spectacularly clean. I did not think it would be. I know that a couple of you have used this method in the past and was wondering what you did to condition the pieces. They are already water logged while in the river. They are much too big to boil unless someone has a giant pot to lend out.

[jvision]

If it'll fit in your oven, you can bake it at 400F - I'm not sure how long to do that for, tho. I'd guess around 10 min.

[Jayba]

I also have heard of people using steamers, I guess like the 'shark steamer'. Would take a while but would work to disenfect it.

[MarkN]

Do you know anyone that works in an industrial kitchen? I am a chef and have access to giant steam kettles and I have used those before to boil huge pieces. Just a thought.

[TBRSMOM]

I too found a few pieces like that while camping this summer. I happened to have a big stainless steel bowl that I put on my stove to boil the water. The pieces where too large, meaning they were sicking out the top, so I continued to flip the pieces over so all ends got a good boiling. I then scrubbed it with a wire brush to get the extra cooties off and then stuck it in my oven at 325 F for about 2 hours. At about 2 hours, I just turned off the oven and let the wood cool with the oven. I have since put them in my tank and so far-so good.

[Boom]

Throw it in the dishwasher... no soap, extra rinse.

Boom :boom:

[Neesmo]

just boil as many pots of water as you can and put the drift wood in the tub. pour as much boiling water over them as you can. Obviously clean the tub thoroughly with straight hot water to get any detergents or shampoo etc off the tubs surfaces

Kyle

[Borgy]

Ive used a old oil barrel

with mine i cut it off 1/3 down with a grinder, put it up on fire pit bricks (4 high)

tie a rope on the wood so you can pull it out while the water is hot

[ty_s]

will any river / lake wood work?

[SwampFrog]

I'd be so worried about getting something in the tank. Don't know if I'd be able to use wild wood that I wasn't able to boil, but the oven thing sounds like it would work well.

[Catmandu]

So I was out walking my dogs with my dad along the North Saskatchewan river when we spotted two great pieces of driftwood. I might also mention that the water looks spectacularly clean. I did not think it would be. I know that a couple of you have used this method in the past and was wondering what you did to condition the pieces. They are already water logged while in the river. They are much too big to boil unless someone has a giant pot to lend out.

What I've used in the past on large pieces that I've collected from riverbanks is I first pressure wash them [no soap of course] put them in a large rubbermaid container and soaked them in strong chlorine solution for hottubs. Keep the solution strong enough to smell like a swimming pool for about a week then after rinsing them well with a pressure washer I soak them again for another week with clean water with a strong dechlorinator, rinse again and they should be safe to use as long as theres no chlorine smell left. It's important to remember that there should not be any bark left on the driftwood to start with.