bought a pressure cooker yesterday. I'm going to play around a bit with vacuum impregnating wood scales. first I'll experiment with thinned varnish/japan drier.
I figure if I can find a mix that will jell in a few hours and dry completely inside the wood in a few days that would be about right.

I figure it'll go something like this: shape the scale, with the holes drilled, get it sanded to 120 grit or so. mix the varnish and the drier. put the mix and the scales in a ziplock bag, put that in the pressure cooker. hook up the vacuum pump and pull it down hard and hold it there for a while to give the air time to get out of the wood. then apply compressed air to drive the varnish in to replace it. if i can, hold it there until the varnish jells. now take it out of the cooker and wipe down to get rid of surface buildup and set aside for a few days.maybe do a bunch of them at once, if it works out.


thoughts/ voices of experience?