stabalizing wood...

[bscofield]

What is it? Is it just for color? Physical structure? Both? I was reading a website that said to boil exotic woods and then let air dry (sound familiar?). This would obviously force sap out... this is what we want right? If one were to use a metal tubing or delrin through the entire shank extension would we still have to worry about the effect of the heat on the extension? Would a heat gun be an accurate testing device to see how the exotic wood would react to heat (i.e. smoking)?

Thanks for reading!

ben

[KurtHuhn]

Usually when you're talking about "stabilized wood" you're talking about wood that has had resins or plastics forced into the pores of the wood in order to provide structural stability. The most common method is to put the wood under vacuum while immersed in the resin/plastic (to pull air out of the voids) then once it stops bubbling and gassing out, allow air back into the vacuum chamber once the wood has submerged itself in the solution.

I've done this before with a medical grade vacuum pump and a pickle jar. Results are good, and the wood is as good any stabilized blanks you might find for sale for pens and such. There's a few products available for impregnating the wood, and they all do a good job adding strength and structural stability.

What you're talking about seems similar to the way our cutters handle briar. I've not seen that method described as "stabilization", so I really don't know. A lot of turners prefer to use something like pentacryl - which is also a stabilizing agent for green wood. It helps to prevent warping and checking as the wood dries - and that's the driving reason behind stablizing all woods.

[PapaDuke]

Here is an expert on "stabilized wood" when I say expert he's doing it himself and not someone who is buying then reselling the stuff.
http://www.stabilizedwood.com/
He will even stabilize a piece you send him. ie Briar?

My main concern is if the additives are toxic?
If there was any way to use the stuff I sure would. Never seen anything as pretty!!


Here's a bit of his tech info...
...How stabilization works
The process forces liquid acrylic resins into wood under high pressure. the resins completely impregnate the stock, and then cure...

...The solution is to stabilize the applicable handle materials so they can't dry out...

...Two-part process requires applying acrylic resins to a handle material followed by a curing period. The result is a water-resistant, harder-than-untreated wood that can be machined and drilled, and that can be polished to any finish you'd put on steel, from satin to a high gloss...
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[hazmat]

I don't think you'd want to use wood treated in this way for anything you're going to smoke something out of directly, e.g. the briar used to make the stummel. You might be able to use it, however, for shank/stem extensions, but I'd be very careful to make sure there's no chance of the material being toxic in any way before I used it.

[PapaDuke]

On the shank extensions I'd worry about heat activating the toxins?
Really I guess there is no way around using this for pipes?

Would make for some wonderful looking Pipe Racks I guess?

[hazmat]

Pipe racks.. sure, why not? It's probably used a good bit in pens and perhaps knife handles or anything else made of wood that you'd like to have around for a good, long while but don't intend to stuff in your chops..