Calvados questions

[Ciderman]

I have 60 litres of 6.5% hard apple cider , which I have stripped down to 10 litres or so of low wines using a pretty basic 25L potstill. On each 20l run I ditched the first 100ml , and kept the next 3L, which is about 40% or so. I plan on doing a second run now.

For a second run should I use bicarb or washing soda to get better separation, or will that remove too much of the Calvados flavour ?

After the second run, what whould I dilute with ? I have further hard cider, apple juice available

Can someone explain exactly how to do the aging with oak chips ? I have some small bits of untreated oak timber about the house - will these do after baking ?

Thanks in advance for any helpful replies or advice