dying stabilized wood

Gevir Knives

Gevir Knives

Hand made knives out of Nova Scotia, Canada
Joined
Jun 11, 2015
Messages
100
so i'm about to try stabilizing some scales for the first time, quick home style with some minwax wood hardner
I've seen other knife makers dye their wood while or after the stabilization process, usually crazy reds blues, greens etc.
it's cool and brings out a lot of the character of the wood i'm just looking to maybe just darken up some lighter woods- like a maple or birch, but with darker more natural tones(browns and tans more than orange and blue basically)
i'm not sure if you do this while you're stabilizing it or after, or what to dye it with that will keep during shaping and sanding. would soaking it in normal wood stain be enough?
 
Save yourself some trouble, wasted time, wasted material, & time and send it to K & G for proper dyeing and stabilization. How much money will you save if you ruin some nice wood or even worse, have a customer return a knife due to improperly stabilized material. Just my opinion but the decision is totally yours.
 
Darrin Sanders said:
Save yourself some trouble, wasted time, wasted material, & time and send it to K & G for proper dyeing and stabilization. How much money will you save if you ruin some nice wood or even worse, have a customer return a knife due to improperly stabilized material. Just my opinion but the decision is totally yours.
Click to expand...

Darrin is exactly right. I process a lot of wood, and its simply so much easier and I can get so much higher quality products when I send material to K&G.
 
Minwax wood hardener tends to darken and discolor the wood.
If you go by some of the methods shown on youtube where they heat the solution then put under a vacuum you are likely to cause a fire or explosion.
The fumes are stronger than sniffing airplane glue. The headache you get is from the brain cells that just died.
Minwax wood hardener was made to surface harden rotten wood so you can paint over it.
The point I am trying to make is that the minwax wood hardener method is both an ineffective and unsafe way to try to stabilize wood.
What I mentioned above is based on personal experience from when I did my own stabilizing. Wood hardener was one of the methods I tried repeatedly.

Those who do home stabilizing with cactus juice and other over the counter stabilizing solutions usually mix the dyes with the stabilizing solution. A lot of the times this method can end up with slightly muddy colors.

For really vivid colors the wood goes into a vat of solvent based die where it soaks until the dye has fully penetrated the piece of wood.
After that the pieces are dried and then stabilized. This process usually involves the wood being in the die vat for a period of weeks. But that is what it takes to get the really deep vivid coloring. I really like K&G for dying and stabilizing.

These photos show a batch how it looks when they come back from the stabilizers. Then what they looked like after they were cleaned up.
dye.354154757_std.jpg

dye1.354155031_std.jpg
 
daggerscove_knives said:
so i'm about to try stabilizing some scales for the first time, quick home style with some minwax wood hardner
Click to expand...
Take a can of Minwax wood hardener and pour it in an open pan. Let it sit and wait for it to get hard.

I did this experiment. After nine months, the wood hardener was very thick but would ooze across the pan. The volume was about 25% of the original amount. There are very few solids in wood hardener. I threw away the experiment because we moved.

The question is, can you wait nine months for your handle to completely harden? Do yourself a favor and have your wood professionally stabilized.

Chuck
 
JBC69 said:
OHH MYYY! That stuff if GORGEOUS! What is it (and do you have any available:D) ??
Click to expand...

I laughed when I saw the answers to this question asked on another thread. Gone reaaaaalllll fast seemed to be the consensus. But who knows, maybe he has more.
 
thanks all. i might look into k&c or very least cactus juice for home use. i re watched some of those vids and they really emphasis how unstable the wood hardner is, i don't want to risk both the wood and my health
 
I went back and the statement you quoted sounded much worse than I meant it. Did not mean to imply that he doesn't care about customers or his business, only that he doesn't care to go back and constantly check threads he posted in for follow ups.

No disrespect intended. It wasn't out of line, just not adequately explained. Sorry for ruffling your feathers and thanks for pointing it out so it could be explained.

By the way, I was the one who asked him for a piece from that lot in the referenced thread, so I do know he didn't respond, at least for a couple of days/weeks after the inquiry was made. It's not a big deal either way.
 
Last edited:
Bodog

with all due respect, your last post really does not improve the situation. You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but your use of the word "care" is imprecise at best and insulting at worst. No member of this forum should be "expected" to "go back and constantly check threads he posted in for follow ups"

had you said, "maybe he doesn't have time to go back and check every thread" that would be less insulting.

I agree with Chuck - I have had many dealing with Mark and he is a class act, and VERY helpful with FREE advice on this forum. He is under NO obligation to do so, and we have had other great knife people driven away from the forums because of similar comments.

I choose to believe that you are not criticizing Mark, but just did not choose your words carefully...

Bill
 
OK, your post as edited (after I read it) IS improved !

FWIW, Mark website always has available pieces for purchase, and you can sign up for newsletter to get advance notice of incoming batches, so if you want something particular, I'd go there rather than wait for a post here.

Bill
 
billf said:
Bodog

with all due respect, your last post really does not improve the situation. You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but your use of the word "care" is imprecise at best and insulting at worst. No member of this forum should be "expected" to "go back and constantly check threads he posted in for follow ups"

had you said, "maybe he doesn't have time to go back and check every thread" that would be less insulting.

I agree with Chuck - I have had many dealing with Mark and he is a class act, and VERY helpful with FREE advice on this forum. He is under NO obligation to do so, and we have had other great knife people driven away from the forums because of similar comments.

I choose to believe that you are not criticizing Mark, but just did not choose your words carefully...

Bill
Click to expand...

Fair, I should have been more careful with phrasing. And I don't expect people to follow up outside of sales threads, that's why I wasn't offended. On the same token, I'd hope that people don't get offended by quick posts that aren't meant to offend, especially when the dude goes out of his way to show no disrespect was intended.
 
bodog said:
It's gone, or burl source doesn't care enough to respond. Either way, if you can get me a piece, then please do.
Click to expand...

Usually best to send a PM or an email especially when you are wanting to purchase something. That way it doesn't look like I was trying to hijack a thread to turn it into a sales pitch. That was an old photo of wood that is long gone. It was meant as an example of the results from a method of dying wood.
While I am listed as a registered user I am not allowed to discuss sales on the forums or I would get banned.
I just come to the forum sporadically and don't usually check back on threads unless it is one I started looking for information.
 
Burl Source said:
Usually best to send a PM or an email especially when you are wanting to purchase something. That way it doesn't look like I was trying to hijack a thread to turn it into a sales pitch. That was an old photo of wood that is long gone. It was meant as an example of the results from a method of dying wood.
While I am listed as a registered user I am not allowed to discuss sales on the forums or I would get banned.
I just come to the forum sporadically and don't usually check back on threads unless it is one I started looking for information.
Click to expand...

This.....if you want a response to a purchase question pm people.
 
Burl Source said:
Usually best to send a PM or an email especially when you are wanting to purchase something. That way it doesn't look like I was trying to hijack a thread to turn it into a sales pitch. That was an old photo of wood that is long gone. It was meant as an example of the results from a method of dying wood.
While I am listed as a registered user I am not allowed to discuss sales on the forums or I would get banned.
I just come to the forum sporadically and don't usually check back on threads unless it is one I started looking for information.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up. Just a week or two ago you were a vendor.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top