Wood is a bio-based material that has always been used for various purposes due to its excellent mechanical and thermal properties. Innovations have been made in wood modification technology to create new functionalities while improving its current advantages. Wood is composed of three main chemical elements: cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. This study focuses on the modification of wood by the removal of non-cellulosic substances to create a cellulose scaffold. The creation of pores after treatments contributes to lower density and therefore lower thermal conductivity. Besides, a new composite can be invented by impregnation of other materials between the cellulose fibers. The top-down modification approach increases the production scalability but the drying of the modified wood remains challenging for the industrial professionals. This work starts by reviewing the protocol of various wood delignification methods that preserve the natural hierarchical structure of solid wood. Then, it focuses on experimental trials on French poplar wood (Populus spp.) using soda pulping, alkaline sulfite pulping, organosolv pulping, hydrogen peroxide bleaching and sodium chlorite bleaching. To look for potential drying solutions, a comparative study was done on different drying techniques. It was found that dielectric heating has the highest drying rate across all moisture contents whereas convective blow drying exhibits the lowest sectional shrinkage. The findings encourage further exploration of delignified wood’s properties leading to large-scale modified wood manufacturing in the future.