Thread: Need Advice on Working w/ Burl & Spalted Wood Scales

Hey guys,

I stabilized some wood with Minwax wood hardener. The burl and spalted pieces are still way too soft. I have them cut out of 1/8" pieces, but I can't use them like they are.
So, I have a few questions.

First, is acrylic stabilized wood usually hard enough to use without liners? One member posted a custom made with Shokwood that didn't appear to have any liners.

If you use liners, how thick do they need to be? Are any of the hardwoods work especially well as liners? I found an old post by HarryWally where he made some beautiful Buckeye Burl Scales. I believe the liners were wenge, but I don't know how thick.

Thanks

If you look around on the site you will see several threads on stabilizing wood. Most of the guys in those threads are using vacuum pots to get the penetration with the product of choice, which I believe was cactus juice. Liners are a fairly simple solution. G-10 comes very thin and is very strong, even at 1/32 of an inch. That was my choice for lining a set of very fragile old bone scales.

And be warned that even with professional stabilizing, you can still have soft spots with burl and spalt wood. Redwood burl is supposedly a prime offender in that way. i have seen it on one knife that I made. I had to use CA to "reinforce" one rather substantial spot in a handle.

If you have a compressor you can get a Venturi vacuum and a used paint pressure pot off the bay for cheap. You must use a vacuum to make any reasonable use of stabilizers or hardeners. Or once I get mine assembled you could send it my way.

I used a pickle jar with a brake bleeder. I sealed it with silicone, but it wouldn't hold the vacuum pressure very well. I think I know what the problem was though.

I'm not going to stabilize any more wood myself for a while. If I buy any more wood that needs stabilizing I'll let someone else do it. It will probably be some time before I try making any more nicer scales myself, but I would like to have the information so things will go more smoothly next time.

So, JDM, your saying the acrylic stabilized wood is usually hard enough to use on its' own?

Originally Posted by RezDog

If you look around on the site you will see several threads on stabilizing wood. Most of the guys in those threads are using vacuum pots to get the penetration with the product of choice, which I believe was cactus juice. Liners are a fairly simple solution. G-10 comes very thin and is very strong, even at 1/32 of an inch. That was my choice for lining a set of very fragile old bone scales.

Correct Shaun. In order to stabilize wood you need a vacuum chamber & I have a link which I'll need to find of a guy who builds the chambers. You'll also need a vacuum pump to pull a vacuum on the chamber. You will become good at stabilizing wood that way. I have been wanting to do this myself. It hardens the wood the way you need it! Cactus juice is one of the most popular ways to do it also. You use that in combination with the vacuum chamber & pump.

I found it. Go to this site & contact this guy. He's here in Texas & not only does he build vacuum chambers but he sells the Cactus Juice too:

http://www.turntex.com/index.php?opt...art&Itemid=121

Here's a link to buy a good vacuum pump cheap:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-3HP-Rotary...item51c46b115a

I've stabilized crosscut spalted hackleberry with only thin CA glue, no vacuum chamber. You need to GENTLY rough down the blanks until they're close to the right width. Once done, mark out the finished shape and rough it out by chopping the excess off with a Stanley blade. Tack the blanks to a piece of glass with two spots of CA glue, this is to minimize warping. Now pour the thin CA glue over the surface until it will take no more and sits on the surface. Once dry, remove from the glass by slipping a razor blade between the blanks and the glass. Turn them over and tack to the glass again. Soak this side and when dry remove from the glass. The blank will probably be warped one way or the other. Place the blanks concave side down and apply another coat of glue to the top surface. Once dry, remove from the glass and keep applying coats to one side at a time, allowing it to dry before turning over. When the blanks will take no more glue, finish the scales as you would any others. Once completed, finish by coating each scale with a layer of thick CA glue, allowing to dry before sanding smooth. Repeat six plus times before performing a final polish. I found that the wood took on a plastic-type quality. Trying to keep the scales straight was challenging and there was some warping, but they balanced each other out and the end result was quite good. I ended up splitting one of the scales when the hollow ground blade they housed was forced in too far while traveling. I fixed it by gluing, once again, with CA glue and after sanding it looked good as new. I'd have to say I was happy with the results, but it was a lot of fiddling about trying to keep them straight.

Yep, a piece of glass or something similar & straight will work too but. I have some 1/8" stainless plate. That would work also. Sounds like your job cam out good!!!

Originally Posted by JP5

Hey guys,

I stabilized some wood with Minwax wood hardener. The burl and spalted pieces are still way too soft. I have them cut out of 1/8" pieces, but I can't use them like they are.
So, I have a few questions.

First, is acrylic stabilized wood usually hard enough to use without liners? One member posted a custom made with Shokwood that didn't appear to have any liners.

If you use liners, how thick do they need to be? Are any of the hardwoods work especially well as liners? I found an old post by HarryWally where he made some beautiful Buckeye Burl Scales. I believe the liners were wenge, but I don't know how thick.

Thanks

I believe the Shokwood is cast in a pressure pot vs using a vacuum.
In general the burl I've used for scales has been very strong and I purchased stabilized without any issues regardless of species, felt very stable as is but I decided to opt for added insurance and went with thin G10 liners. Like Rezdog said, the 1/32" was plenty.
However- The SPALTED burls Ive used seemed brittle and still some punky spots after being stabilized with vacuum. maybe with pressure pot casting the voids in some spalted burl would be filled better????? I had a set snap on me just trying to profile at the belt grinder, not using excessive force either.