Planning A New Project - Smoking The Wood Prior To Aging

[Avalir]

Hey ya'll,
So I'm sitting here with nothing to do but think (my old lady says I shouldn't do that--or that I don't do that... one of the two, possibly both) and I just conjured up a potentially brilliant thought. We've all heard of smoking our grains, but has anyone ever attempted to smoke the wood itself? Obviously there's a plethora of reactions going on whenever you char, toast, or smoke anything--be it grains or wood. So my madman idea is to smoke the wood itself that will be used for aging. I know there will be hurdles to jump through as oak is nowhere near as soft or porous as most grains (and yes, I intend to use oak rather than find a softer, probably easier wood). I want to find out how the flavor of my likker compares when I use smoked oak to age a non-smoked grain bill versus non-smoked oak aged smoked grain bill--then further down the line possibly try smoked oak on smoked grains. I'm sure the key to this endeavor will be trying to get enough smoke flavor to infuse to the oak, without making a substantial impact on the toast.

My thoughts at this time as far as a plan of action is to go ahead and first give the wood as much surface area as I possibly can--cut it thin, saw in groves, possibly even drill holes or partial holes.
As far as being able to infuse smoke with little to no impact to the toast, I'm thinking to go ahead and let that wood fully saturate with water to encourage as much smoke to stick and absorb as possible Then just before the smoking process begins, give it nice decently long boil to get them pores opened up. From there, I'm thinking a cold smoke infusion--probably have that steaming water nearby so the wood doesn't get too dry. Then cold smoke as long as I can stand too.

Some questions I have with this:
1. Is this much effort really necessary? Not talking about the process itself, I'll go that extra 20 miles at least once for an experiment. I'm referring to all the extra steps to make tons of smoke stick--obviously when you smoke grains, you still need to mash, ferment, and distill, and a lot of that smoky essence is lost. Will what I'm proposing just be overpowering?
2. What are your thoughts on toasting? Would it make more sense to do it before or after the smoking process? And somewhat related, to char or not to char? Bourbon is my drink an oh, how I wish smoky bourbons were a common thing. I'm just unsure on how charring may impact the smokiness I'm planning to so painstakingly instill.
3. What's your opinion on the wood I use to invoke the smoke flavor? If it helps, I'll probably stick with my bourbon grain bill: 64% corn, 10% pale malt, 10% vienna malt, 8% oats, 8% wheat. I imagine apple, black cherry, pecan, or maybe even my used bourbon wood, or possibly something else I'm not thinking of?
4. Any other thoughts on how to proceed or tweak the process? It will probably be at least a couple months before I proceed forward, so this should give us ample time to go wild with brainstorming.

I understand that there's the possibility that the overall final result may not be worth the time and effort the process will take, so no need to comment that if that's all you have to say. Once again, it's an experiment and I'm more than willing to put the work in at least once. Who knows, it may be well worth the hard work and time--the biggest thing I'm sure everybody has learned with this hobby is that the hard, time consuming prep work along with patience is what give our likker that magical, mystical elegance.

All input and feedback is welcome. Get excited with me and let your mind run wild! There's a lot of variables that need to be considered and I feel this adventure will have many opportunities to get creative and branch out.

Cheers!

[8Ball]

Why not just get a smoke infuser for $20 and smoke your spirits right before you drink them?

[Avalir]

Why not just get a smoke infuser for $20 and smoke your spirits right before you drink them?

Not a bad thought. However my logic with this strenuous approach is to not only get the smokiness, but also see what additional flavors and complexity can be achieved by all the various reactions that take place in the wood itself as a result. So the goal is to gain something that isn't solely a singular smoke note, but more of an array of I don't even know what.