Not wanting to derail a thread on lathes, but if you get hold of some baked oak chips from a winery outlet supplier, you'll be amazed at the richness a few in the cask can add, as oak leeches out and starts dwindling over time, oak chips are beaut for "refreshing" the alcohol!
cheers, Ian
Hi Ian, don't worry about derailing the thread, I too love "beverage hobbies". I brew my own beer from grain and do full mashes. I also have experimented with oak. I find oak cubes provide a more multi-dimensional effect than chips. They are basically 1cm cubes of diced barrel. They are charred on one side. Just smelling the bag is heaven I can't find them in OZ though and have to import from the US. Ive used them in oaked mead. Good times....