Thread: Local burl brush

Fantastic, Andrew. A great looking brush.

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Originally Posted by tintin

Nice job Andrew. does one have to use vacuum to stabilize wood? what kind of set up do you use?

To truly stabilize wood, you do need a proper vacuum. I've tried some pretty crappy methods in the past, although they worked ok, did not do the job like a vacuum pulling at -29 milometers of mercury. It basically removes all the air within the wood, and once brought back to normal atmospheric pressure, replaces that air with resin. Another thing you need to realise with stabilizing is that there are only a certain few woods that stabilizing will work well on. IME, exotic, oily wood will not stabilize. The first problem is they are too dense, the second problem is the oils in the wood mix with the stabilizing resin, and then will not cure properly. Our domestic woods that are perishable are very good candidates for stabilizing. But as soon as they have any sort of natural oils, it becomes much harder to treat them. At least this has been my experience with the woods. A good example of this is Red Wood. You would think because it's light and porous that it should take in the resin well, and have no issues. IME, because of the natural oils, it hasn't worked out well for me. I have read of others having great success with this wood, but I haven't been able to get good results with this wood. One of the key things that I was making the mistake of doing early on, was removing the wood from the fluid too soon after releasing the vacuum pressure. Leaving it for at least an hour in the fluid after releasing the vac pressure is a good idea. That way the wood has plenty of time to draw in the resin, where the air once was.Then it's baked in an oven to cure the resin throughout the wood.

My vac chamber is something I put together with fittings and a hose I got from Home Depot, a piece of 12"x 12"x 1/2" piece of polycarbonate I got from ebay (this should be at least half of an inch thick so it doesn't implode), A heavy stainless steel pot and small tabletop oven I purchased at the thrift store, a cheap vac pump I got off of amazon, and a silicone baking sheet I got at Canadian tire for the gasket. Here's a pic of it.



These can also be purchased online already assembled in kits for stabilizing at many online vendors.

I'd do a lot of reading and watching of videos before attempting to stabilize. It's not cheap, and can be VERY dangerous. Also make sure you're using actual stabilizing fluid. I've tried other products like wood hardener, and you just don't get the same results.

Cool setup, Andrew-I've got a knife making friend who can stabilize the cut offs I bring him from another friend who makes furniture. He uses Cactus Juice.

Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad

Cool setup, Andrew-I've got a knife making friend who can stabilize the cut offs I bring him from another friend who makes furniture. He uses Cactus Juice.

Cool. Free wood is always great.

Ya Cactus juice and Stick Fast I think are the only 2 products I've heard of. Exactly the same stuff.

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Great looking handle Andrew, that burl and the resulting colour, beautiful buddy!
Shape flows very well from head to base and the accent ring for grip stands off the main line perfectly..
Well done sir.

A superb looking handle Andrew.