Using Oak in a Mead for the first time

In a pumpkin mead ready for racking, I decided to go for it and acquire a little oak. In this case, medium-toast Hungarian oak, at 1 ounce for the whole batch. Attempts to rig some sort of weighted bag or somesuch were futile, as it was impossible to get the silly things into the mouth of the carboy and the weight I would usually use (a clean, sanitized, stainless steel spoon) won't fit through the mouth. Fudge it. Let 'em float. I read on-line that many a home winemaker just takes a light hand with the oak, and waits for them to sink to the bottom. With this 5.5 gallon batch, a single ounce is 1/3 less than the recommended amount, and I am happy to exercise that restraint.

I poured just-boiled water on them to sanitize and dumped them into the carboy.