Stabilizing wood

H

Happychicken

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Nov 14, 2018
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hi all I stabilized some bubinga last week. I went to drill the hole for the dowel as I am making a wa handle. There was a good amount of smoke when drilling and I saw visible moisture come to the outside of the wood.
Now I was told this was kiln dried wood but the only thing I can think of is that The wood absorbed water from sitting around in my garage. Then the cactus juice never went all the way in. I followed the instructions for vacuum and soaking and baking resin so I don’t think I screwed that up.
Do you all dry the wood you are about to stabilize right before you stabilize it? How are you drying it in an oven or a food dehydrator?
 
I think the agreed procedure for DIY is to start with kiln dried or home dried wood, then bake before stabilizing for 12 to 24 hours in home oven set to 80-100 degrees Celsius. Stabilize straight ahead or vacuum you wood in food vacuumer after drying in the oven. If you can't do that, couple of bags with vacuum seal while the wood is still warm, check if there is any condense water on the inside of the bag when it cools down. There shouldn't be any. The wood will start absorbing humidity straight out of oven.
 
Oh ok wow I should have baked it before also. Thanks for the info!
Is stabilized wood that much better saw a few knife guys dumping on it on the YouTube
 
The bubinga you mention isn't going to stabilize very well at all with Cactus Juice, and doesn't need stabilizing at all. It's almost like Rosewood, too hard 'n oily to need anything extra.

You need to read this instructions carefully and follow exactly. Cactus Juice works really good on open pore woods when you do.
https://www.turntex.com/help-center/cactus-juice-stabilizing-resources/60-using-cactus-juice
Pay special attention to these points:
1. place dried wood in your toaster oven at 220° F (104° C) for a minimum of 24 hours.
2. take anywhere from 4-6 hours on the low end to 24+ hours on the high end o fully evacuate the air from your material. I would say the most common is 12+ hours.
3. Oily woods such as Cocobolo and Rosewood should be avoided. The reason is that under vacuum, the oils in the wood will be drawn out and can possibly contaminate the Juice to the point it will not cure properly.
4. Allow the blanks to soak for twice as long as you had them under vacuum at a minimum. A longer soak, up to overnight, will yield better results in many species of wood. Remember, the majority of resin uptake occurs AFTER you release the vacuum. Some species of wood such as Walnut and Redwood benefit from an extended soak. I usually soak these for 1 week.
 
You're right Chuck, K&G can stabilize most anything. I was speaking of home stabilizing when saying it wouldn't do much for Bubinga. Bubinga is like Rosewood, Desert Ironwood, and the like, why would anybody even consider stabilizing those woods they're so hard, and finish so nice.
 
Happychicken said:
You mean I have to have it under vacuum for 12 hours? Thanks
Click to expand...
Not Bubinga wood, that stuff is so hard 'n oily home stabilizing isn't going to do much at all to it. Home stabilizing works just fine on open pore woods where the resin gets 100% penetration.
 
You guys rule thank you!
I have a whole gallon of cactus juice that I bought or I would be sending to the pros.
I have cherry, some kind of burl wood unsure what it is exactly but nice figuring, rosewood, curly oak, birds eye maple, walnut, osange, and some others I will check when I get home.
Can I stabilize any of these at home?
 
Ken H> said:
Bubinga is like Rosewood, Desert Ironwood, and the like, why would anybody even consider stabilizing those woods they're so hard, and finish so nice.
Click to expand...
We let customers decide if they wanted natural or stabilized bubinga. We offered blocks of both cut from the same logs with the same high figure. Knifemakers and collectors overwhelming chose stabilized.

Chuck
 
I have done maple with cactus juice and got good results, but have no experience with others you listed.
 
NOpe, Purple Heart, canary wood and quina will not do much trying to home stabilize. They don't really "need" stabilizing to make a good handle. There are many woods that folks think need stabilizing but have been used for years for knife handles without stabilizing and work just fine.

Ben has put together a page and this is link to read about many different woods.
http://greenbergwoods.com/wood-identification-and-info/
Read here about stabilizing: http://greenbergwoods.com/stabilizing-information/

Someplace Ben had a page about woods that did NOT need to be stabilized but I don't see it anywhere.
 
Hey all I see these lists are of what can be stabilized professionally. Is there a list out there of woods that can be stabilized effectively at home? So far I have maple which is good to know because I have a bunch of Birdseye
 
One of the easiest ways to tell if wood needs to be stabilized (that's "needs" to be, not just "nice to stabilize) is put the block of wood in a pan of water. If it sinks or almost sinks, doesn't need to be stabilized. If it floats half out of water, it would be good to stabilize and most likely will respond to home stabilizing. Once the wood is stabilized, again do the test in water. If the block sinks, or almost sinks it got full penetration of resins. If it floats pretty high in water, the resin didn't get good penetration.

Do you have any blocks of wood that were stabilized by K&G? If so, test them in water and you'll see what I'm talking about. Test a block of your cherry wood and you'll see it floats pretty high.
 
Ok great I can do that! I’ll see what floats. There is a lot of conflicting info on particular woods ability to be stabilized.
For example I am looking at orange Osage right now and apparently it can be stabilized by pros but difficult for home stabilizing.
I gotta use up this cactus juice!!
Thanks again everyone especially for your patience with my questions!
 
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