stabilized wood

[Kirby Bletcher]

I recently got some stabilized wood for the first time and I was not very happy It was rosewood from a reputable source. The wood was all full of cracks. I cut it down to use for a folder and it just wasn't strong enough to work with. In the past I used woods that didn't need stabilized. Is this normal for stabilized woods or did I get junk? May be its not suitable for folders? The wood sure does look pretty in the pictures so I wanted to try it.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

[AcridSaint]

I don't think you should consider this "standard" in stabilized woods, I've had little trouble with the stabilized woods I've bought/used. Never had a chance to use any rosewood though, so maybe it's prone to this behavior even when stabilized.

[Hukk]

To start with rosewoods are not generally stabilized because they are oily woods. They can be stabilized but some may "bleed oils" and others will be OK. I have had Tulip Wood stabilized per request with no problems and actually it was quite nice. Rosewood is a rather generic since there are dozens of species of Rosewoods. Tulip Wood is a Rosewood as is Cocobolo.

If the wood was cracked, stabilizing the wood does not mean that the cracked wood is stable, the crack can be as unstable as ever.

Many burls will have cracks or inclusions, but I've never sold any that are heavily cracked or has a long crack in it that runs the length.

Sounds like you had a bad piece of wood.

But that can be hard to tell without a picture. Since it was stabilized Rosewood, my first thought would be that the wood is the problem.

[Doug Lester]

I don't recognize who Darrell Hukkanen is but it sounds like he is an experiences stabilzer so I deffinantly respect his opinion. I would ask if you have addressed this with the seller. If you haven't given him/her the chance to correct the situation, you really owe it to the person to give them the chance to make things right. If you have addressed this to the seller and they refuse to stand by their product, you were generous (not to mention wise) not to mention their name on this thread. Just chalk it up to experience and know that there are other suppliers out there who will love your business.

Doug Lester

Doug Lester

[Ray Rogers]

As has been stated already, rosewoods are not good candidates for stabilizing. I've had some beautiful rosewood that was stabilized and everything was great but not every piece works out like that. Also, different sources use different stabilizing processes. I use a lot of stabilized wood from K&G Finishing and WSSI and never had a problem with any of it.

Do as others have said and give the source a chance to correct the problem. No matter what happens with that, don't let this experience put you off stabilized wood. There are makers who just don't like it but there are probably more, like me, who won't use anything else...

[Kirby Bletcher]

Thank you gentlemen for the quick response and good advice. I will call the supplier today and see what they say. I feel confident they would make it right. I just wanted to see If there was something I was doing wrong before I called them. I will try stabilized wood from some of the suppliers mentioned here as well.

Thanks again

[chris moore]

so would it be out of the question to get some bolivian rosewood stabalized??? it's some cool looking stuff but yall said it's really oily?

[skipknives]

isn't there a list somewhere of woods that can & can not be stabilized??
i think i saw one years ago,,Ironwood, coccobolo, and ebony were three on the list that i remember,,

[Kirby Bletcher]

Skip, I think your right. I remember something like that to. Hopefully someone here has it.

[Bob Hatfield]

I think you may be wrong about Desert Ironwood being on the list of woods that can not be stabilized. I have had about 15 pounds of Ironwood stabilized by WSSI and all of it came out very well.

Bob Hatfield

[skipknives]

Bob I was wondering,,what the weight difference is before and after thou??

[Bob Hatfield]

Skip;

the weight difference was not that great due to the ironwood being very dense in the first place. I would guess that it was about 15-20% higher after being stabilized. I have found that most of the less denser woods, such as spalted maple burl, burl redwood will pick up a higher weight amount after being stabilized. I am guessing as much as 40-50% of the dry weight due to its larger pores that seem to soak up a greater amount of the hardner that WSSI uses.

Bob Hatfield

[skipknives]

can you see a differance in the finish of an ironwood piece compaired to one that has not been stabilized??

[Bob Hatfield]

Yes, the stabilized ironwood seems to have a higher gloss finish when I do the final polish on a a loose cotton wheel loaded with pink "no scratch" polish. The best feature is that I do not have to worry about the wood warping or shrinking as I would with non stabilized wood.
If you send wood to WSSI, try to send an amount that will be over 10 pounds when finished. That way you pay 10 dollars per pound instead of 12 dollars per pound if the order is less then 10 pounds. Do a web search under "WSSI wood stabilized" and they have a web site that will show you examples of different woods and how they look after being stabilized. I have gotten to the point that I only use stabilized wood on my knives except for Coco Bolo which does not need to be stabilized due to it's very high oil content.
They also can stabilized bone and horn to prevent it from warping or soaking up water while in field use. WSSI will not stabilize Walnut due to their formula turning walnut black, there is another company that has a different formula and can stabilized walnut.

RELH