Vacuum assisted aging

[Copper top]

ok guys, my first real contribution to the forum, been reading so much my eyes hurt, done quite a few brews and results have been fair thanks to the great information from the group.

need some opinions on this topic "vacuum assisted aging" trying to create a whiskey using oak sticks so heres what i have done so far,

1 built a boka style still, but using it in pot mode
2, made a few batches of cornflake and also all bran wash - distilled and now have a couple of gallons to age using local english oak,
3, collected a very old dried out oak branch and cut it into sticks 100mm long x10mmx10mm baked the sticks in the oven @200 deg c for 2 hrs, then charded one side with a blow lamp
4, placed 35 sticks in each gallon demi john ready for ageing liquor is ABV 55%

now while i was doing this i had an idea i took a rubber bung and length of pipe and attached it to one of the containers, and sucked the pipe, while i was doing this, air bubbles could be seen coming out of the oak sticks and also causing some of them to float to the top, when i released the vacuum the sticks sank back to the bottom,

so what im thinking is ,while the container is under a slight vacuum and bubbles are being released the liquid is going into the sticks, maybe ageing slightly quicker than if they were left to it on their own?

so what im asking is
1, has anyone tried this before
2, am i wasting time on further experimentation, i did try a taste after about 4 days , the one under vacuum is slightly darker but only a tinge, but the mellow taste is very noticable

i was thinking of rigging up some sort of vacuum pump and a timer and having the process automated to apply vacuum for 12 hrs then vent for 12 hrs

any comments ?