Stabilizing Redwood?

C_Claycomb

C_Claycomb

Joined
Dec 11, 2000
Messages
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I was lucky enough to collect quite a bit of curly redwood from the grounds of my old highschool. It is much too soft to work as is, so I have tried getting it stabilized but with only mixed success. The initial batch, sent to the WSSI (who I have been very happy to deal with and who have done a great job on all the other wood I have sent), showed poor penetration in scattered stripes in the larger blocks of heart wood. The sapwood was pretty solid. I sent another batch in smaller blocks, and while that was better, there are still areas in the heartwood that haven't taken the resin.

I also tried a guy here in the UK who started using US stabilising gear. He did a couple of samples but said that the heartwood didn't stabilize properly while the sapwood did.

I saw that Burlsource recommended K&G for stabilizing redwood and I was hoping that he, or someone else, could elaborate or offer their experience of working with redwood stabilized by K&G, or any one else for that matter?

It would be nice to be able to use this wood given the quantity I have and the source.:cool:

PICT4248.jpg

Personal knife showing stripes of wood that are still soft and unstabilized, picking up a little dirt and looking grayer than the rest of the handle :(

Thanks guys:)

Chris
 
Nice Wood! Nice knife! Good luck in your quest.

Are we seeing a reflection of the wood in the blade or is that some sort of special finish on it?

- LonePine
Alias Paul Meske, Wisconsin
 
IIRC K&G treats redwood differently than most other woods, or have a special formulation for it for better results... Mark (burl source) would definitely be the guy to ask, maybe shoot him an email? I have some redwood stabilized at K&G that is awesome with full penetration. I also have some redwood stabilized at WoodLab that also had full penetration but was scales (no personal experience with blocks with WoodLab but everything I've gotten back from them I've been very satisfied with).

Anyway, shoot Mark an email, there's a reason he goes with K&G...
 
I have had K&G did all my redwood and it turned out great. In fact I am getting ready to send them a bunch more.
 
cheers guys :thumbup:

Sounds like K&G are worth a call. Its expensive shipping wood all the way to and from the US, so it is good to have some positive referrals to go on ;).

Lonepine,
I did a kind of vinegar/polyacrylamide gel etch on the blade, just for fun. It looks good, but isn't really durable.

Thanks again :D
 
I agree with the other guys......K&G.
They have done over 50lbs of redwood for me so far.

They have 2 different formulas they use with redwood. K&G's formula actually makes the figure look flashier and maintains the wood's vivid coloring.
Curly Redwood is the easy stuff as long as the wood isn't pitchy. An easy way to check is put a scrap piece in the oven at 250f for about a half hour. If the wood is pitchy you will see dark liquid bubbling on the surface.
I don't know about mailing from where you are but sending it back they can use USPS Flat rate shipping to keep the cost down.
 
I will try that oven check for pitch content. When folk talk about resin content I tend to think of how thuya behaves, or even cocobolo, and compared to those two the redwood I have seems really dry. Easy enough to check it though.

Thanks for the shipping info, that is what WSSI have always done. Its just a shame that the post here doesn't offer flat rate for shipping to the US. It cost as much for the untreated wood to go from the UK as it does to have the treated wood sent back:grumpy:, even with the increase in weight after treatment!

Thanks again :):thumbup:

Chris
 
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