Q&A about getting wood stabilized

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I get asked a lot of questions about getting wood stabilized so I thought a Questions and Answers thread might be useful.
I used to do my own stabilizing. Now I use one of the professional wood stabilizing companies to do all my stabilizing.
Over the years I have learned some stuff the hard way. You don't have to make all the same mistakes I did.
I am not a wood stabilizing expert, but I have learned a bit.

I will start out with the most common question and then you guys can post any questions you might have.
I am hoping some of you guys will help out with answers as well.

Question: Does the wood need to be dry before I have it stabilized?

Answer: Yes, Ideally the wood should be dried to under 10% moisture content.
If it is not dry the wood tends to move a lot during the curing portion of the stabilizing process and can pull itself apart resulting in large cracks.
 
About how much will a block of wood cost once it has been stabilized? I have seen a lot of places that stabilize them by the pound, and they weigh them after they get done, so I "wood" like to know what to expect. ;)
thanks.
 
I guess that's something I'm uncertain about also.

Is the price per lb only based on the finished weight? Or the difference between the starting weight and the finished weight? Seems like some wood would be much less economical to get stabilized if it's the former.

Thanks for taking the time Mark.
 
The companies I know of who stabilize wood charge by the weight of the block after it has been stabilized.
With K&G the cost will range from $9 to $13 a pound last time I looked. The more you are getting stabilized, the lower the cost per pound.

Just as an example, if the cost of stabilizing is $10 a pound and 2 stabilized blocks weigh a pound, your cost per block is $5 per block.
 
The weight is based upon the FINISHED weight. That is usually between 10% and 100% (double) the original weight. It depends upon the type of wood and its condition. It is usually between $9/lb and $13/Lb depending upon how much you have treated.
 
Will the result be the same every time you have like material treated by the same treater?

No. The polymers are expensive and are reused. The result will be darker as the polymers are used more often.
 
Cost is based on finished weight,say you send 10 lbs of wood and it gets stabilized afterward it weighs 14 lbs.You get charged for 14 lbs.
Stan
 
Can ALL woods be treated or dyed?

No. High oil woods are usually not treated. This includes woods like Cocobola and desert iron wood. Myrtle does not dye well but does treat. It is best to stain myrtle, etc after it is treated.
 
Be careful. Wood that is very punky or woods that naturally take a high per centage of polymers (like buckeye burl) becomes brittle and cracks easily. Be careful with pin pounding, etc.
 
Thanks for the responses. I was more interested in the approximate weight of a block, but I am beginning to realize that it isn't that simple.
 
It would not be easy to say an average block weighs X amount...Spalted maple..which weighs next to nothing before stabilization will weigh vastly less than say an old maple burl...The densities are waaay different.
 
Well, I always assumed that the "charge per weight" was based on the amount of polymers used. So it would make sense to charge based on the differential of starting weight vs finished weight. I know the materials used to stabilize are expensive, however, it would *seem* that very light porous woods would be highly expensive to stabilize.


Mark have you run into any woods that just weren't worth the stabilization price per pound?
 
yes, I have some stones I want treated, but because I have to pay for the weight of my untreated product AND the added polymer it does not make sense. Stone uses less polymer and weight 10X most woods per volume.
 
Yeah, I have a 14# mammouth tooth I'd like to have stabilized, but the recommended process is to stabilize the whole tooth then restabilize the slices. That gets "mammouthly" expensive. I wonder if I could slice it and superglue some G10 to each slice before I cut it on my 18" saw. I wonder if the stabilizing process would ruin the superglue bond?
 
shotgunner said:
yes, I have some stones I want treated, but because I have to pay for the weight of my untreated product AND the added polymer it does not make sense. Stone uses less polymer and weight 10X most woods per volume.
Click to expand...

Following that line of thought would you then agree a knifemaker should charge no more for his product than the cost of materials?
 
Larry,

I don't think folk are unwilling to pay for stabilization.

For me, I wonder why a block from heavy wood like oak burl should cost as much as buckeye burl (which is starts light but ends up about the same weight), when it clearly takes much more of the expensive polymer for the buckeye.

I don't know, but I would guess that the stabilizing companies are making less money on lighter woods and more on heavier because they use less polymer for the heavier woods.

Somebody clever might capture the stone and tooth stabilizing market by offering to charge, say $13 per pound for final weight, or $25 per pound for the difference between final and initial weight, whichever is less.
 
Interesting stuff, thanks for sharing.
I just wish there was a place this side of the border to have it done. :(
 
Patrice Lemée;10213757 said:
Interesting stuff, thanks for sharing.
I just wish there was a place this side of the border to have it done. :(
Click to expand...
I have not used them myself yet. But woodstabilizer.com is out of Alberta and from what I have heard they put out a quality product.
 
Just a quick opinion here.
No matter how they calculate what they charge;
It is cheap! What I pay to have K&G stabilize wood for me is less than what I used to spend on the chemicals alone.

If you want a rough average, you will get about 2 or 3 normal size blocks per pound after being stabilized.
Some will be heavier but this gets fairly close.

For someone using plain wood they might still think this is expensive.
But.... if you are using something really nice, it only makes sense.
 
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