Stabilizing Amboyna burl block?

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Eriksen

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Sep 18, 2005
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I have a block with dimensions - 5 2/8" x 5 1/8" x 1 6/8" (133 x 130 x 45 in mm.)
Can I immerse the whole piece in Cactus juice for stabilizing, or do I need to cut it into smaller blocks in order to penetrate all of the wood with the resin?
And what will be the minimum thickness it can be cut into before it warps during the process?
Another problem I´ve been thinking on is that all moisture needs to be dried out of the wood before stabilizing, but if I put it in the stove, will it then crack? It has some very thiny cracks already.
Anybody here with experience regarding this?
 
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I think there is a lot of "Ifs" in the answers to your questions. Depends on what equipment you have and how "old" and moist the wood is. Probably many other things. I would cut it up in 4 smaller blocks and try drying one in oven and stabilising it. See how you like that and do the rest in one go?
Maybe someone more experienced will chime in.
 
Eriksen said:
Can I immerse the whole piece in Cactus juice for stabilizing
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That statement concerns me, you are aware of the need for a full vacuum to use any of the stabilizing methods, even Cactus Juice? And yes, the wood MUST be very dry. Put in oven for 24 hrs at 212F at least to get it dry.

Go to the Cactus Juice website and read their instructions - and follow instructions exactly and you'll find Cactus Juice does a good job on open pore woods. Not sure about Amboyna burl.
 
Amboyna is a bit oily but will stabilize. Amboyna burl also moves a lot - even stabilized. Maybe more than any wood I've seen including snakewood.

Do not stabilize scales. If you do, they will come out as curled as potato chips after heat. Stabilize oversize blocks and cut scales later only when you are ready to use it. After cutting over sized scales, let them sit for a couple weeks. They will bend a bit so you will need to sand them flat.
 
tmickley said:
Amboyna is a bit oily but will stabilize. Amboyna burl also moves a lot - even stabilized. Maybe more than any wood I've seen including snakewood.

Do not stabilize scales. If you do, they will come out as curled as potato chips after heat. Stabilize oversize blocks and cut scales later only when you are ready to use it. After cutting over sized scales, let them sit for a couple weeks. They will bend a bit so you will need to sand them flat.
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I thought about cutting the block into 3 parts and they will be around 1 5/8" thick. Will they twist at that size? And how critical is the curing temperature for cactus juice, do I need to use a temperature controller on my stove?
 
What we're saying is that they will move no matter how big they are. Stabilize them oversized so you can cut the size you need after the wood has finished moving
 
Eriksen said:
I thought about cutting the block into 3 parts and they will be around 1 5/8" thick. Will they twist at that size? And how critical is the curing temperature for cactus juice, do I need to use a temperature controller on my stove?
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I can't really say how much but give yourself 1/8" to 1/4" extra for curl in a block. Allow 1" for curl in a scale (kidding - don't do scales).
Bake the wood in advance at 180 for a couple hours. Take it out and let it cool then go about your stabilizing process.
Curing isn't that fussy. Get to 200F for a couple hours and you will be fine.
Absolutely go to Curtis's site and read up. He does a great job explaining things and will significantly improve your end product.
 
Don't worry too much about cracks. If they do, get some alumilite and fill the cracks with something cool. Or cut the burl into odd size pieces, stabilize and may hybrid blocks. If your into that sort of thing.
 
How long have you had the wood? You want to make sure they're dried and equilibrated to your local humidity before you start baking them to dry them out. If they're still drying, baking them might cause more cracks.
 
milkbaby said:
How long have you had the wood? You want to make sure they're dried and equilibrated to your local humidity before you start baking them to dry them out. If they're still drying, baking them might cause more cracks.
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I bought it from Thailand a month ago, but I don´t know how long time it has been dried before I bought it. Maybe I can dry it with low temperature the first day and increase the temperature gradually until it´s completely dry..
 
I'd be skeptical of how dry wood from overseas is. I personally like to keep wood sitting around for at least a year before using it out of paranoia. You could dry it in a little homemade wood kiln of a cabinet with an incandescent bulb as the heat source. Measure the weight before, then check it from time to time to see if it's getting lighter from losing moisture. The weight should eventually stabilize.

As Scott said above, you could also just fill in any checks and cracks with alumilite or just epoxy. It can still look nice depending.
 
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