It is a good process if you adhere to the 'rules' BigAl mentioned. I learned a sore lesson that was not supposed to be a lesson in smoking woods. I once tried to dry a woodcarving that I had applies a very strong oxidant to.. wood bleach.. After bleaching the wood and using vinegar to stop the action of the bleach.. well I wanted to dry the wood reasonably quickly so I could get on with the rest of the carving so I chose to microwave it. I did put it on a relatively low setting.. I didn't have the rotary table in mine.. and microwaved for a few minutes.. saw steam coming out. I did this a few times and it still had steam coming out.. so I mwaved it once more for about a minute at high.. THAT was a mistake. First, I didn't wait for a minute or two between sessions to allow the steam to escape.. just figured with steam coming out it was still wet enough to keep going.
I found out something interesting.. a microwave cooks from the inside out.. I smelled smoke and my nice carving was charred in some of the deeper external parts and whenI tried to remove the char.. I found it to be deeper than just the surface.. OhOh.. Now that great bleaching process was all for naught.. I had to ultimately paint my carving.
For anyone interested.. go to my picture site and look at the Polar Bear.. The wood is called Basswood, common in the Northeast. It is a creamy white wood and can be bleached to a very nice natural white. But, as mentioned, I had to paint this guy to cover the char. :-< I can laugh at it now.. but, I was pretty mad at myself that day.