In my quest to get everything sorted for when my new WSM arrives tomorrow i have rang around a few local carpenters and have found a chap that is willing to swap me lots of oak offcuts or/and shavings/sawdust for beer happy days. However when talking to him he said that while he was happy for me to have the oak offcuts (which are untreated) they are very dry and would burn very quickly.
So my questions really are as followed ... is this a problem? would it be better to soak the oak in water for a bit first? and would doing this affect the flavour?
Also would i be better using oak shavings/ sawdust instead of chunks of oak?
Thanks again
Mike