Wood stabilization

G

GRapp

Gold Member
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Nov 14, 2022
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Do you stabilize your own? Do you have a service that does it? Do you just buy it? I've got property in E. Texas and have been eyeballing some trees which possibly have interesting grain. I haven't ruled out doing it myself but I read from Ed Caffery on ABS that it's nearly impossible to match the quality done professionally.
 
since it takes almost a year to just dry the wood down to 10% just to be stabilized
then the gear to pull a vacuum and pressure the resin into the wood (and the cost of the resin)
do you really want to incur all that money/Commitment ?? or just buy some that is done ??
 
I do my own but also purchase some that’s already stabilized. Some woods are very easy to stabilize others are best left to professionals imo.

I’ve also come to realize it’s actually quite rare to come across wood that’s worth stabilizing in the wild.

I like the option of picking up larger pieces of unstabilized wood that I know will be worth stabilizing to save some money.
 
Yep buy. I've used K&G too in the past. Currently I've been using AZ Ironwood. Been very pleased with their product.

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GRapp said:
Which did you find easy? Which did you find not easy?
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In my experience, home stabilization can be done well on 'punky' wood, not so much on dense, solid blocks.

My disclaimer: I have never done any home stabilizing with Cactus juice or other home methods. Why do I try to speak with some sort of authority, then? I used to heat and cook with wood, so had a seeming unending supply for maple blocks. About 6-7 years ago(?) I sent a number of different makers some about a dozen blocks each to dye and stabilize in exchange for keeping 1/2 of the blocks. 4-5 makers took part, but only one of the makers was able to make blocks that were tough to distinguish from K&G (similar weight/density) and that was D DevinT IIRC. The others in my (admittedly small) sample group were significantly lighter in weight and the dye wasn't consistent all the way through the blocks.

So my conclusion at the time was that while it IS possible to get similar quality as what K&G does, it's not easy, and not everyone can do it well.
 
weo said:
In my experience, home stabilization can be done well on 'punky' wood, not so much on dense, solid blocks.

My disclaimer: I have never done any home stabilizing with Cactus juice or other home methods. Why do I try to speak with some sort of authority, then? I used to heat and cook with wood, so had a seeming unending supply for maple blocks. About 6-7 years ago(?) I sent a number of different makers some about a dozen blocks each to dye and stabilize in exchange for keeping 1/2 of the blocks. 4-5 makers took part, but only one of the makers was able to make blocks that were tough to distinguish from K&G (similar weight/density) and that was D DevinT IIRC. The others in my (admittedly small) sample group were significantly lighter in weight and the dye wasn't consistent all the way through the blocks.

So my conclusion at the time was that while it IS possible to get similar quality as what K&G does, it's not easy, and not everyone can do it well.
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Yeah, that wasn’t me. I’ve never stabilized any handle material.

Hoss
 
If you'd like I have a short writeup about stabilization Here. My opinion ive voiced many times before is that I have been nothing but impressed by the work K&G does. I have not done my own stabilizing, i work mostly with denser, exotic woods like amboyna, afzelia, narra and other exotics. These are more difficult to stabilize and in my opinion benefit even more from professional stabilizing.

Personally I think one of the most common sources of fault in home stabilized material is excessive moisture, as drying wood is a difficult process that results on sever checking if not done properly
 
GRapp said:
Which did you find easy? Which did you find not easy?
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Any thing oily is difficult and requires extra steps and time.

Maple, cherry, birch, oak, black ash, buckeye are all pretty easy.

Density plays a role too. I’ve had some figured maple so dense it would never full saturate with resin. One end of the block would always float even after a month of cycling it in the vacuum chamber and pressure pot.

Black walnut can be a real pain. Amboyna takes more time but can be done at home. I hear yellow cedar is very difficult and so is redwood.

I would make sure that the more difficult to stabilize species come from a trusted stabilizer. I’ve had a set of scales fail from a supplier that said their stuff was stabilized but it wasn’t done well.
 
Greenberg Woods said:
If you'd like I have a short writeup about stabilization Here. My opinion ive voiced many times before is that I have been nothing but impressed by the work K&G does. I have not done my own stabilizing, i work mostly with denser, exotic woods like amboyna, afzelia, narra and other exotics. These are more difficult to stabilize and in my opinion benefit even more from professional stabilizing.

Personally I think one of the most common sources of fault in home stabilized material is excessive moisture, as drying wood is a difficult process that results on sever checking if not done properly
Click to expand...

I have a few pieces of sentimental wood I'd like stabilized. I have the pieces small and split, drying in a semi- stable environment for about a year now.
* I can go longer, no hurry.
Does a place like K&G (which I plan to use because of All the good things that have been said here) dry/kiln the woods further upon arrival to ensure a consistent product on their end?

Thanks.
 
Crag the Brewer said:
I have a few pieces of sentimental wood I'd like stabilized. I have the pieces small and split, drying in a semi- stable environment for about a year now.
* I can go longer, no hurry.
Does a place like K&G (which I plan to use because of All the good things that have been said here) dry/kiln the woods further upon arrival to ensure a consistent product on their end?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Not exactly kiln dry, what they do is have wood in a dry room with light airflow until the wood gets down to ~8%-9% and then put it in a heat room. Im not exactly sure of the temps but it is heated to bring the wood down to 3%-4%. Wood is naturally hydroscopic at these levels, so wood dried down this low will naturally reabsorb moisture from the air. Wheat they do is use heat to drive it lower then immediately into the stabilizing before moisture can be reabsorbed.
 
Greenberg Woods said:
Not exactly kiln dry, what they do is have wood in a dry room with light airflow until the wood gets down to ~8%-9% and then put it in a heat room. Im not exactly sure of the temps but it is heated to bring the wood down to 3%-4%. Wood is naturally hydroscopic at these levels, so wood dried down this low will naturally reabsorb moisture from the air. Wheat they do is use heat to drive it lower then immediately into the stabilizing before moisture can be reabsorbed.
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They do This with the wood (we) send in to them too? or just the woods they source to stabilize?

Thanks a Bunch for all You do (too)
 
I really hope natural kiln dried wood becomes popular again. The balance it offers is unbeatable.
 
I recently started to stabilize my own, at home. Using cactus juice. We (far side of Europe) don't have K&G or similar services, and if I could find something of that kind, maybe in France or Germany, then shipping fees back and forth would kill any economical reason to work with my own wood.
I collect various burls, and over the years this hobby was very fruitful. When I go hunting or fishing, I frequently see interesting stuff in woods. Sometimes I cut down and take home some of that. And let me be clear - I don't take home boring stuff. We have (baltic) birch burl every where - I can burn that in my wood stove, as I often do. What is more rarely - birch burl with many little branches and burgeons. That makes interesting stuff inside, you can spalt that, dye various colors. I have interesting stuff from birch, black alder, white alder, willow, and many more locally specific woods what I can't translate. Burls, burls on branches, burls on roots and more.
For knife handles I usually use blocks, at least 7-10 years old. At that time natural moisture level is no more than 8-9%. Then I put pieces in special place in my house heating system where they stay few months or more, at that point my moisture meter wont read it as levels are below 5%. Then I put blocks in heating oven @215-218°F until it stops loosing weight two consecutive measuring one hour apart. Then I put it in vacuum sealed plastic bag to cool to room temp, then to cactus juice. Pull vacuum at least 28in Hg (in my altitude) for 6-24h, then leave immersed for 3-4 days to week. After that cure in oven per cactus juice instructions.
I do all that because I like it. It is part of hobby, actually - many of my hobbies are intertwined together. And I like to build stuff. Vacuum chamber, oven temperature controls, all that is interesting too. For me, at least. I even made special bandsaw for burls.
No, I don't sell knives. And I never held in my hands K&G or similar service provided wood block, so I can't compare.
 
lynx85 said:
I recently started to stabilize my own, at home. Using cactus juice. We (far side of Europe) don't have K&G or similar services, and if I could find something of that kind, maybe in France or Germany, then shipping fees back and forth would kill any economical reason to work with my own wood.
I collect various burls, and over the years this hobby was very fruitful. When I go hunting or fishing, I frequently see interesting stuff in woods. Sometimes I cut down and take home some of that. And let me be clear - I don't take home boring stuff. We have (baltic) birch burl every where - I can burn that in my wood stove, as I often do. What is more rarely - birch burl with many little branches and burgeons. That makes interesting stuff inside, you can spalt that, dye various colors. I have interesting stuff from birch, black alder, white alder, willow, and many more locally specific woods what I can't translate. Burls, burls on branches, burls on roots and more.
For knife handles I usually use blocks, at least 7-10 years old. At that time natural moisture level is no more than 8-9%. Then I put pieces in special place in my house heating system where they stay few months or more, at that point my moisture meter wont read it as levels are below 5%. Then I put blocks in heating oven @215-218°F until it stops loosing weight two consecutive measuring one hour apart. Then I put it in vacuum sealed plastic bag to cool to room temp, then to cactus juice. Pull vacuum at least 28in Hg (in my altitude) for 6-24h, then leave immersed for 3-4 days to week. After that cure in oven per cactus juice instructions.
I do all that because I like it. It is part of hobby, actually - many of my hobbies are intertwined together. And I like to build stuff. Vacuum chamber, oven temperature controls, all that is interesting too. For me, at least. I even made special bandsaw for burls.
No, I don't sell knives. And I never held in my hands K&G or similar service provided wood block, so I can't compare.
Click to expand...
Your stabilizing process is pretty much the way I do CJ these days. Back when I did a batch for Weo I was still learning and didn't have as good a vacuum chamber as I do now. I did around 50 blocks of spalted pecan from a stump that had been cut for several years that turned out good with 100% penetration. Sinks like a rock in water.

I'm not at all sure home stabilization is worth the money considering the cost of equip - close to $200 total cost for equip (chamber, pump, misc stuff). About $100 for a gallon of CJ which should do around 50 blocks, depending on size of blocks.

As mentioned before, an open pore wood is needed for home stabilization - bet balsa wood would do great:)
 
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