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The process will stress the piece, no doubt. Don't know about less hygroscopic. I need to break out Hoadleys Understanding Wood.

Don't remember if it's in Hoadley or not. I'm not a chemist by any means but my understanding is that the heat breaks down the hydroxyls in the hemicellulose and there becomes less material for the water to chemically bond to. It may also affect the capillary action but I'm unclear about that.

I know there's a lot in the archives here if you search for "baking tops". Not sure if there's much about the mechanism though.

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Kent, I just remembered a blirb in FWW about heat treated wood. seasonwood.com sells it in the US. Follow this link http://www.thermowood.fi/ to some very good info. It does have more good effects than bad.