Stabilizing, encapsulating, etc.

R

rocketman

Member
I am hoping to do a little stabilizing , encapsulating with resin for knife handles, and was wondering what the collective intelligence of
this group would suggest for one or both of these processes.
I have a vacuum oven, which will help with bubbles, but I was thinking that the most important issue is the density, and polishability of the
end result will be.
Any materials and process suggestions will be deeply appreciated.
Have no intention of going commercial, just for my own use.

Thanks
Bill
 
I've noticed that nobody has jumped on this thread to offer anything. What I'm going to say might not be what you want to hear, but its my honest opinon based on 2 years worth of experience attempting to do my own stabilizing.

First and foremost, unless its just something you plain want to do, my advice is to send the mateirals you want stabilized to a professional company....you WILL spend a great deal of money and time, often without favorable results doing it yourself. The reasons I say that are:

-Unless you either have, or can build "industrial grade" vacuum chambers and pressure vessels, results will be spotty at best.

-I went through a ton of different "stabilizing agents" and until I got into the stuff that was $100+ per gallon, the results simply were not satisfactory. (I don't mean to step on anyone's toes, but the stabilizing agents that are less costly then that simply do not work).

-When I got to the point of spending that much on stabilizing agents, I quickly found that my equipment wasn't capable of the long durations of vacuum and pressure that were recommended/required to achieve complete penetration/saturation of the materials I wished to stabilize.

-Be aware that "stabilizing" isn't a complete solution. Stabilizing will not prevent "movement" of a natural material...it will only minimize it within the boundaries of the given material.

-Personally I only know of one individual who has achieved what I would consider "good" results with home shop stabilizing....and that person spent over $12K on equipment over a 3 year period, and wasted literally thousands of dollars in woods and other handle materials before he was able to achieve what he termed "good" results.

I don't mean to be a nay-sayer......but unless you have a really big wallet, and are willing to break a LOT of eggs to make the cake, its much simpler and far less expensive to send your material to a professional.
 
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Ed,
Thank you for your thoughts and sharing your experiences... Although I do have professional equipment because of another hobby, I don't want this to turn into an all consuming passion.
What is the name of the best material for stabilizing?? Is there a name brand for material for laminating.
It is logical that these materials would not be the same as the viscosity has to be different..
Thanks
Bill
 
Sorry I missed this thread until just now. There is a Cactus Juice product that works very good with open pore type woods. Doesn't cost all "that" much for equip. I've used Cactus Juice, and with a good open pore wood, I've had excellent results with resin completely thru the wood and final result will sink in water showing a very heavy density. Is it as good as K&G (or other professionals?) - for very open pore woods where the resin is 100% saturated thru wood, darn close. With a home setup Cactus Juice will NOT work very well with denser woods like American Black Walnut and similar woods. I've got a tad over $100 in my setup - and even at that I could perhaps buy the wood as cheap, but I enjoy piddling around learning new things.

Here's a link telling much about the product: http://knifedogs.com/showthread.php?34630-Directions-for-using-Cactus-Juice

Ken H>
 
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