Hey guys. My name is Ben Greenberg, and I am a massive exotic wood nerd whos been in the fancy wood game for about a decade now.
I really love to talk about, answer questions about and generally share information about exotic wood. The first thing i wanted to talk about is stabilized wood. I come from the knifemaking world, where stabilized wood is common and often preferred. Im not sure what the pen making view of stabilizing is, I would love to hear your guys thoughts on it. But I wanna share some information on what it does, what you can expect from stabilizing, and the like.
Here is some quick information, if you have any specific questions about stabilizing, stabilized wood or anything else please let me know.
What is stabilized wood?
Stabilized wood is a type of composite material, but it is different from other composites you may know such as micarta or fiberglass. Stabilized wood is a timber that has had an acrylic polymer dissolved into a solvent, and then forced into the wood through a mix of vacuum and pressure cycles. The wood is then heated to drive off the solvent and cure the resin. This leaves a wood that is harder, denser, stronger, resistant to water, resistant to warpage, and will take a higher sheen than the natural wood. With the resin filling the wood, the material gains properties of both natural wood and resin acrylic. Stabilized wood is often the best choice for pieces that will be handled often, will be around water or large changes in humidity, and for highly figured or finished woods where the finish may become damaged or scuffed in time due to the relative softness of the material.
Why does stabilizing help some woods more than others?
This comes down to the structure of wood. All wood is made of 2 materials, and is thus composite by itself. Wood is made of of long fibers of cellulose which are held together with a glue like molecule called lignin. Think about it as a bunch of straws all glued together along their edges. Different woods have different properties because of changes in a few of these parameters. A fine grained wood like maple has many thin straws which means it can naturally be polished to a high sheen. A coarse grained wood like oak has few, very thick walled straws. That means it is mechically very strong, but the grain is large and it can not be brought to as fine a polish. There are other properties, like the amount of lignin between the grain that holds everything together, along with other chemicals called heartwood extracts that give woods like rosewood their color, smell and unique properties. By stabilizing wood, strong acrylic monomers are soaked into the entire structure. Inside the tubes of the grain, between fibers and throughout the whole material. This can be thought of similar to fiberglass or micarta, where full even coverage of the resin, called the matrix in composite terms, is soaked though the whole substrate. Some woods take stabilizing better than other because their unique properties make them soak in resin and allow it to cure very well.
Some woods are naturally soft, or have lost their lignin binding for one reason or another. Woods like redwood burl, Japanese Sugi cedar and other softwoods will scuff and gouge easily if handled. But after stabilizing, these normally soft woods become dense, hard and stable enough to be used for items like pens or handles. In the case of woods like Bog oak, the natural lignin has mostly decayed, leaving only the celluose structure behind. Naturally, this wood is prone to chip and splinter. By stabilizing, this wood can become strong and able to take a very fine polish.
Woods like Amboyna, Curly acacia, Koa or Afzelia xylay are naturally reasonably dense and solid. But they take stabilizing very well, and will generally gain about ~50-75% of their weight post stabilizing. This means that the highly figured woods are resistant to chip out, humidity changes will pose less risk, and that the pieces can be brought to a higher degree of polish.
Woods like Rosewood, ebony, Ironwood, Ringed Gidgee and camphor burl do not take or need stabilizing. Very dense or oily woods do not accept stabilizing well. The resin is not able to penetrate into the very small pore, and the existing heartwood extracts and oils will prevent the resin from properly curing. This will result in the wood weeping uncured resin.
Will Stabilizing make the wood feel plastic?
No. Wood is already a composite material. The feel of wood is due to the grain structure and the fine texture that it has. This is not changed by stabilizing. Lignin is already present, by adding stabilizing resin the texture of the wood to touch will not be greatly changed.
What is the thick and thin people talk about?
Professional stabilizers such as K&G use two different types of stabilizing resin depending on the density of the wood, called thick and thin solution. Thick solution is used on less dense woods like buckeye burl, soft maple or redwood burl. It contains a higher concentration of resin and thus can add more weight. Thin solution is used on denser woods like Walnut, koa or afzelia xylay. Due to its lower concentration of resin, it is better able to penetrate and soak into these less porous woods.
How do you stabilize wood?
My answer has always been, I dont. I pay experts to do it professionally. All the stabilizing I have done is done by the good people at K&G, they are the industry leaders in the process, and in all my years no one has come close to matching their quality. There are many people looking to stabilize at home, or buy home stabilized products. I say best of luck, but in my experience no one has beaten the pros. What is quality in stabilizing? Weight gain, penetration, and finish finishing. In my 10 years of working with stabilized woods, i have not found a home stabilizing setup that can beat both the quality and consistency of wood stabilized by K&G.
What does stabilizing not do?
Stabilizing will not fill voids or gaps. Stabilizing resin will fill wood, it will not fill gaps. For large gaps or voids, use epoxy with black dye, and for small gaps use CA glue.
Stabilizing also does not make wood plastic. Well stabilized wood still looks like and works like wood. It still has a grain structure and can be worked with chisels, saws and abrasives. It simply strengths and enhances the wood.
After finish sanding, multiple layers of a standard finishing oil or wax can be applied to enhance the appearance and protect the finish.
