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Last night I found a bound set of set of beveled strips (a pleasant surprise) that I had heat treated sometime last spring (I pretty much do most of my building between January and June - it's nice to have a break for fishing and other hobbies). The strips have been kept in a PVC tube with desiccant but I'm unsure whether I should heat treat the strips again, maybe for a shorter amount of time or if they are okay to plane as is. (Bob Williams) I keep a five foot long 2 1/2" PVC tube hanging from the ceiling. Under it is a piece of 2 x 8 with a lamp socket. Use a large coffee can with both ends cut out, cut out a hole in the plastic lid for the PVC tube. Use a clear 60 watt bulb. It gives me 90 plus degrees. Use it all the time I am working on strips. Especially after planing wet strips in the rough. Leave them overnight before they go in the oven for tempering. I believe high temps will damage wet strips. Don't use a frosted bulb, you wont get as high a temp. Ask me why. I only use the tubes to store strips for long duration. (Jerry Young) I would just use them without heat treating again. The first treatment sets the changes in the lignin and that's supposed to be irreversible. (Steve Weiss) If you have already heat-treated the strips at 300 degrees plus, then it won't hurt at all to heat them for a coupla hours at around 200 degrees, just to be sure. (Harry Boyd) If you've had them sealed really well in a tube with desiccant, I don't see much point in reheating them. You could try heating them at low heat, say 225°F - 300°F for an hour, or two, but in my experience you will not drive off a tremendous amount of moisture. Since I don't think you'd have a lot of moisture to begin with, I doubt you'd accomplish much. (Martin-Darrell)
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