“Help! I am receiving a Bible that is wet after a house fire. Has anyone had experience in FD books to salvage them? Do you pre freeze with it open? Put it on center tray? Do you need other items on other trays?”

This was a post in a Facebook group in January of this year by one of our customers, Vernon B. Our user group gave him plenty of advice about using a freeze dryer to restore soaked books, and we were all touched when he posted the story of the bible:

“He must have had it open so the cover is burned. It’s wet but did not soak but an inch. Fits trays fine. Tons of notes in it. Lost wife 3 yrs ago in tragic wreck and raising 2 teen girls. A mans man of faith. I put it in 11-10 custom. So glad to be able help”

For many families, Bibles are also irreplaceable family heirlooms. We all waited to see what would happen when Vernon freeze dried the Bible. There were many posts of encouragement, but there were also questions:

“Did you let this go through all three cycles? And what setting did you use?” One user asked. His response: “Did custom 10-9 let it run its course. It was not soaked all the thru. Only 1” or so. Only took 24 hrs total.”

Finally on February 1, Vernon posted the results:

“The Bible fluffed up a bit but the pages and notes inside were salvaged perfectly. It’s the little things inside like the I love you note from his daughter seen in the picture that made this project so cool. Thanks for the comments and ideas.”

Way to go Vernon. We think that might be the sweetest thing to come out of one of our freeze dryers.