Wood Stabilizer?

[Done_Swimmin]

Hey All
Which wood stabilizer do you use/recommend? Reason why?
Any ideas for a simple economical vacuum pump as well?

 

[SteelJunkee]

Stick Fast or Cactus Juice resin, no reasons, only product available here

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I recommend K&G … why - because it will be done with the right polymer and fully stabilized.

Use the Custom Search Engine in the stickys to look at the many old treads on home stabilizing vs commercial.

 

[Tom Lewis]

Save yourself a lot of trouble and send your wood to K&G.

 

[Horsewright]

Yep I'm a knife maker not a chemist, I got stuff to do like building knives! Thirds on K and G.

 

[john april]

economical = does not do a good job when it comes to stabilizing. the cheap vacuum pumps will not fully stabilize to the center of the wood. i wasted money on the cheap setup and cactus juice and now i just use K&G. i can tell if its k&g or cheap ebay stuff because there is so much hard acrylic in every microscopic pore that it weighs more and is almost as difficult to grind and shape as micarta.

 

[DanF]

^ what they said, there is a lot of experience talking.

 

[South paw draw]

Well. Not a knife maker. Do a little leather work for me and my family but I have looked into this before. I can tell you this. You will not get as clean of a product as someone who does it all the time. And the cost per pieces in the beginning will be way more then its worth in less your looking to do this for a living or on a large scale for a bit of time. I wanted to make a knife. I have a really nice design. Looked into all the steps
This was one. I'll just send the wood off. And pick one of the several talented makers here to make the knife. This is from someone that is not a maker and has no skin in the game.

Hope this helps brother. These guys know there stuff. I just think an outside opinion helps sometimes.

Cheers.

 

[Britt_Askew]

I sent a piece that was stabilized by K&G to a guy that was doing it himself using the cactus juice stuff and his response was something like "now I get it"

 

[Greenberg Woods]

Yep I'm a knife maker not a chemist, I got stuff to do like building knives! Thirds on K and G.

I am a chemist and worked in a polymer lab. And I have never and probably will never sell any stabilized wood not done by K&G.

 

[South paw draw]

I am a chemist and worked in a polymer lab. And I have never and probably will never sell any stabilized wood not done by K&G.

And that there is a solid representation K&G Has if a chemist is standing behind their work. I know where my wood will go. Thank you OP for stating this thread. Saves me from having to ask when the time comes.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I was a rechearch chemist in resins a long time ago. I have all the equipment needed to do stabilization and I fully understand the physics and chemistry of the task.

My wood goes to K&G in 20 pound boxes. Worth every cent.

 

[Don Hanson III]

I've had decent results with cactus juice, but K&G does a better job.

 

[kdnolin]

I’ve done CJ and K&G. Being from Canada, the freight cost almost as much as the stabilizing, but my next batch will be K&G for same reasons others have stated. K&G also do a much better job dying woods, l could only get pastel colours with CJ.

 

[Randydb]

I live in Canada. Find my own wood and dry it. Ship it to K&G for stabilizing. Shipping and stabilizing costs work out to about $6.50 cdn a block when all is said and done. Hassle free...beautiful stabilized wood. I can't see myself doing anything else.

 

[Cushing H.]

I’ve done CJ and K&G. Being from Canada, the freight cost almost as much as the stabilizing, but my next batch will be K&G for same reasons others have stated. K&G also do a much better job dying woods, l could only get pastel colours with CJ.

Just out of curiosity, how did you try dying your wood. Apparently K&G uses water-soluble dyes and lets the blocks soak for a couple weeks, then dries out the blocks, THEN stabilizes. I think with CJ the idea is that the actual stabilization resin is dyed, right? That might explain at least some of the difference...

 

[kdnolin]

I think with CJ the idea is that the actual stabilization resin is dyed, right? That might explain at least some of the difference...

Yes, there could be a better way, but that is how I did it, I even used more dye than recommended and it didn’t compare to what K&G can do. I’ll post pics later today.

 

[Cushing H.]

I think that makes sense. Wood is hydrophilic (likes to absorb water), and when K&G puts well-dried wood into that water based dye the wood just sucks it up, even into really small pores. (They dont use pressure for this step). . Also, if the CJ dyes are not water based, they will not like to “adhere” to the surfaces of the wood pores ... hence the paler color. I have no idea what brand of dyes K&G uses ... could be food coloring for all i know?

 

[weo]

Apparently K&G uses water-soluble dyes and lets the blocks soak for a couple weeks, then dries out the blocks, THEN stabilizes.

Not anymore. In the last year or so, they have developed a new process (I don't have any details). I got my last batch of dyed blocks returned fully dyed and stabilized only a couple of weeks after I sent them in and this is as fast as I've gotten blocks back from them, either dyed or not.
When I got the call saying they were ready for payment so they could ship the back to me, I mentioned that I expected it to take longer and they said they have a new process and need to change that on their website, but it looks like that hasn't happened yet.

 

[Cushing H.]

Not anymore. In the last year or so, they have developed a new process .

Huh - thanks ... i wonder what they are doing. When i spoke with them (mid september?) they were still saying they were using a water-soak process (and said they still needed to dry the blocks afterward). Weird.