Wood Stabilizer?

They used the two step process for the wood I sent this summer, the clear came back about 3 weeks sooner than the dyed. I like the idea of a two week turn around and I’m confident they wouldn’t sacrifice any quality.
 
kdnolin said:
They used the two step process for the wood I sent this summer, the clear came back about 3 weeks sooner than the dyed. I like the idea of a two week turn around and I’m confident they wouldn’t sacrifice any quality.
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the wood has to be dried after dying, causing the delay.

Edit. I saw the post on the new process. Mine last year was the old process.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
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.
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Why 20 pound boxes? Is there a price jump to ship when over 20? I sent a box recently that was 27 pounds....shipping was a fair bit more than a batch I had sent about a year ago that was around 15 pounds.
 
I have some K&G red, teal, and blue (spalted maple) I can post for folks to also see (if you want me to??). Also have a CJ Red piece that (If I can get appropriate permission) I can post for comparison (definitely is lighter than the K&G red). Let me know if you want me to post?
 
weo said:
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.
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I have put dye in lacquer and sprayed it eliminating the need for two steps , wonder if they just made a batch of colored stabilizing solution and do it at one time?
 
Randydb said:
Why 20 pound boxes? Is there a price jump to ship when over 20? I sent a box recently that was 27 pounds....shipping was a fair bit more than a batch I had sent about a year ago that was around 15 pounds.
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It was a general weight meaning that I fill a flat rate box with wood and send it off. Often I send as many as four boxes at a time. You do get a good discount with batches over 10 pounds.

One thing folks need to remember is that the price is based on the finished weight of the wood. It may go out at 20 pounds and come back at 30 pounds. You pay for 30 pounds. Very light weight wood is the best deal, as you get more stabilizing for the final price. Heavy woods are less of a deal, as the wood already weighs a good bit.
Examples:
A) 10 pounds of light weight spalted maple may be 70 blocks ( just an example). Because it is light and porous it absorbs lots of resin. It comes back at 20 pounds @ $13/pound = $260. Of that $130 was your wood's weight to start with. So, you paid $130 for the actual stabilizing and resin. In the end you paid around $3.70 a block for the finished wood.
B) 10 pounds of ziracote is 40 blocks (just an example). Because it is heavy and dense, it doesn't absorb much resin. It comes back at 14 pounds. You pay $182. Of that $130 was your wood, and $52 was the resin and stabilizing. You ended up paying $4.50 a block for the final product.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Very light weight wood is the best deal, as you get more stabilizing for the final price....
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This is an interesting way to look at it.

I have always just taken the final total cost to me (stabilizing costs plus large box flat rate shipping both ways) and divided that by the number of blocks. For my maple, it comes to about $6+/block (closer to $7 if dyed).
 
I thought it was the difference in weight start to finish we pay for. I might have misunderstood.
 
weo said:
This is an interesting way to look at it.

I have always just taken the final total cost to me (stabilizing costs plus large box flat rate shipping both ways) and divided that by the number of blocks. For my maple, it comes to about $6+/block (closer to $7 if dyed).
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At $6-$7/block that is an awesome deal when you consider stabilized blocks from suppliers go for $25-$55.

I just keep an eye out for nice looking deadfalls in my travels in the forest and drag pieces out that get tossed under my deck to dry. When I need more handle material I cut up a batch and send them off to K&G. Here is a picture of half of the batch of maple I just got back from them.IMG_2184.jpg
 
Randydb,
I am also in Canada, in Montreal.
It is encouraging to see the posts by you and kdnolin because I was wondering about attempting to stabilize some wood myself simply because I thought that sending it to the US would be prohibitively expensive.
I know that the comments by well informed people here about getting wood stabilized by the pros. makes perfect sense. K&G seems to come very highly recommended.
A question please - have you ever had any sort of issues with shipping to and from the US or with Customs people on either side?
kdnolin, any comments or advice from your side will be greatly appreciated too please.
Thanks
 
Shipping between Canada and USA.
1) If the item is being shipped across the border I only ship via Canada Post or United States Postal Service (USPS). The couriers charge massive brokerage fees. I had Fedex charge me $50 on a bow sight that was worth $102. USPS/Canada Post are waaaaaay more reasonable in this area.

2) I paid $28 cdn to ship 14 pounds of wood to K&G about a year ago and $57cdn to ship 27 pounds (110 blocks) more recently. That second box was just one I had at home so I wonder if I used one of those prepaid boxes that Stacy mentioned it might have been less.

3) Only problems I have had with things in general crossing the border is time. I have had two items get hung up in customs for about a month each which was a pain, but it seems like they were just slow. This was items coming to me so Canada customs were slow.

4) I live about 1/2 hr from the USA border. There are a number of shipping receiving companies that are just across the border who will receive my parcels and hold them til I pick them up. $3/parcel. I use a company called Ship Happens. I signed up with them on line and they email me when parcels arrive for me. I find it saves me $$ in shipping from the US to Canada. Also no chance of brokerage fees or items getting hung up in customs.
An added bonus to bringing the item across in person is that the border guards often don't even charge me GST/PST taxes. It seems like if an item is worth about $150 or less they usually just send me on my way. Once in a while they are very generous (One time my son had a Lego Death Star kit and I had kitchen reno stuff. Over $1300 total. The border agent talked Lego Star Wars with my son for 5 minutes and sent us on our way...no taxes).

Not sure what part of Montreal you are in, but if you are on the south side closer to the border I would consider using one of these shipping receiving companies.
 
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When shipping wood across the border, I am concerned with insects (or the border agents may be), so I put the wood in the oven for two hours at 200 F. On the shipping label, I call it kiln dried wood.
 
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weo said:
Nice looking blocks, Randy!
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I know! Not bad for looking like rotten deadfall in the bush!. Funny part is my grade 4-7 students haul the pieces out of the bush for me. I pay them in jujubes and jelly beans. They hauled some 30-40 pound burl chunks almost 4km....only cost me $3 worth of candy. The kids used to think I was crazy but now they have seen the handle blocks I get from it and they are constantly on the lookout for interesting deadfalls. I'm not sure if it because they want candy or are actually interested in the wood.
 
Randydb said:
I just keep an eye out for nice looking deadfalls in my travels in the forest and drag pieces out that get tossed under my deck to dry.
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Randy - I have been thinking of giving this a try myself - there are a couple wooded park areas near me (one city, one county), and have been meaning to give a call to the respective park authorities and asking them if it is ok for me to haul chunks of rotten deadfall out.

Question: is there a best time of year to do this scrounging? I had been thinking late summer/autumn ... giving the little bugs time to chew on the wood after falling during the winter snows.....
 
Guys , I don t see that Cactus Juice is out of business ...so who buys it and uses it , IF home setup don t work as most of you say ?
 
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