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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need. |
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#1
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home stabilizing
what is the easiest method of stabilizing wood scales for an amateur?
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#2
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Send them to K&G or WSSI. Home brews don't work very well and you'll be disappointed. Leave the stabilization to the professionals!
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#3
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I would strongly suggest that you follow Nick's advice and send your stabilizing out to the pros. If you absolutely must try it yourself then google 'cactus juice' - that's the only home brew that works worth a crap. But be warned: it doesn't really qualify as 'easy' and neither is it cheap. Sending your wood out will be less expensive and give far better results ......
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#4
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If I had the money back that I wasted on home stabilization experiments I could have a lot of wood stabilized professionally. Enough to keep me in handles for quite a bit. Also not all wood needs to be stabilized to make a durable handle and not all wood, especially the Rosewood group, can be stabilized. Most of the burls and the softer woods may need to be stabilized to be useful but I would only send wood out for stabilization if it needed stabilization. I've seen Osage Orange listed as stabilized but it beats me why one would want to do it. That stuff makes fence posts that can sit in the ground for decades before rotting through.
Doug __________________ If you're not making mistakes then you're not trying hard enough |
#5
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Good advise above and I fully agree with Doug. Seldom use stabilized wood unless requested or for kitchen use. As he said, a lot of woods just don't benefit from the process.
__________________ Carl Rechsteiner, Bladesmith Georgia Custom Knifemakers Guild, Charter Member Knifemakers Guild, voting member Registered Master Artist - GA Council for the Arts C Rex Custom Knives Blade Show Table 6-H |
#6
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Let me relate a story to you. As a knife maker I am a part timer and my making always seem to take a back seat to everything else going on in my life. Me wife contracted and incurable disease in 2009 and has been very sick. There are time when the illness flares up and everything is shoved to the back burner!
I have a mason jar with a Elk antler in it that sits on the back edge of my bench! It is a reminder of a failed experiment. I wanted to stabilize the pithy area in the center, of the elk antler so I could use it it on a thru tang knife. Sort of like slabs but thicker, so I decided to experiment with home stabilization! Soooooo I bought the materials needed for this job, Elk antler, the chemicals/liquids for the polymerization after pulling a vacuum on it, I sit it aside to soak for 24 hrs before doing the heat to cure the stabilization. As I said I am a part timer and my wife's illness demanded a lot of my attention. She had a real bad flair up and the 24 hrs turned into a longer period that intended. The mason jar, got slid back on the bench and stuff was set in front of it and well one day, after the wife was doing better and I needed to un-clutter the bench so I could get back to some knife stuff. I began to attack the bench like a man possesed! I soon discovered the mason jar under some bags of stuff sitting on the bench! When I picked it up I realized the liquid in the jar not longer was liquid!!! Since I had pulled a vacuum on it, the product cured, without the heat needed to cure. It probably not cured as good as if it had been given the proper heat but none the less it is one solid block inside of the mason jar! The manufacture told me when I contacted them that sometimes the product will cure/harden after a vacuum on it even though it is not exposed to air. So that would make the material a one time use, at least in some cases!!!! So the moral to this story is. I lost the time, the materials and the antler. Not to mention I almost bought a vacuum pump to start out on this venture, thankfully I borrowed one to do this experiment! Why don't I throw away the jar with the antler in it. Well it is a reminder that next time it will be cheaper to go ahead buy the material already stabilized or at least send it out to be done. The chemicals are NOT cheap, a good vacuum pump is NOT cheap and losing time and the material you were trying to a failed stabilization well that is NOT cheap either!! The jar with the failed experiment that is priceless, it lets me know that home stabilization is NOT for me __________________ C Craft Customs With every custom knife I build I try to accomplish three things. I want that knife to look so good you just have to pick it up, feel so good in your hand you can't wait to try it, and once you use it, you never want to put it down ! If I capture those three factors in each knife I build, I am assured the knife will become a piece that is used and treasured by its owner! C Craft |
#7
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Thanks to all y'all.I think it best for me to stay away from the stuff that needs stabilizing,for a while anyway.Ive got plenty of bodock and rosewood.
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Tags |
advice, amateur, antler, back, bee, blade, block, burls, easy, edge, handles, home, kitchen, knife, make, materials, rosewood, scales, stabilization, stabilizing, tang, wood, woods |
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