Stabilized Wood

[Iron Striker]

I have lots of Mesquite wood in my back pasture and I want to use it on some knives I have in progress. Some of the wood is still growing and I have some that was cut a while back. Is it better to used older dried wood for stabilizing or can you stabilze green wood? I assume green wood would be harder to stabilize since it is green an has moisture in it already.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

Jamie

[Backwoods Blacksmith]

You want the wood to be well seasoned and completly dry. Are you going to stablize it yourself or have it done? You can force season it by using an insulated box and a heat lamp. Keep temp around 120. Weigh the wood before drying and reweigh every two or three days. Turn the wood every day to keep warpage to a minimum. When the weight no longer changes then it is completly seasoned. It is best to rip your wood before drying as this speed up the process. Once seasoned keep it sealed as it will absorb moisture like a sponge.
Good luck

[knots]

Mesquite is a beautiful wood. It is slow growing and dense so the heart wood of larger trees would be a good source. Dry it .

[Mainely,Bob]

Most people think of wood that has been infused with resin when you say "stabilized wood" . Is this really what you`re intending to do?

[Rich Hale]

If the answer to the above is yes and you intend to either infuse it yourself or have it done. Here are my thoughts. I do not know any commercial place that will try and treat wood that is not dry. Some woods like desert ironwood are so dense they will not take the process. That said, I will add that I have used stabilized woods from a lot of different vendors and there is sometimes a big difference in the quality. Some are simply not worth the money they charge and some are really nice. I feel good knowing when a knife leaves me that I have done everything I can to make it top quality. And that applles to this process. I have not yet seen a home grown process that to me is worth doing. But like everything there may be some folks that can do this. If you wish the name of who I use send me a note.

[Iron Striker]

I was thinking of doing it myself. I have seen some posts that show how to "stabilize" using wood hardner and a vacuum. I have such an abundance of the Mesquite and I never thought of sending it out. I'm still feeling my way through all of this. Still reading a lot and experimenting. I have used Mesquite for different kinds of handels and have good success with just oil treated surfaces. Not time or field tested though. I'm mainly making "give away" knives for now while I'm learning.

Thanks for the information! Jamie

[Mainely,Bob]

I would just soak the Mesquite in Waterlox and call it good. Mesquite is a very stable and dense wood and the Waterlox will penetrate and waterproof the wood. You really don`t need anything more than that with a wood like mesquite IME.
When I say Waterlox I mean the old formula that is oil based rather than any newer water based low VOC crap they are trying to palm off as just as good. It Ain`t.

[knots]

I wonder if an old low pressure cooker could be used as a pressure vessel to treat small pieces of wood. They already have a pressure release valve built into the top. Easy to open and big enough for treating handle sized pieces of wood. All that would be needed is to drill and tap for a compressed air connection and a regulator provide a low pressure air, and of course an air compressor.

I did a little research on pressure cookers. Indications are that they have a working pressure of 15 psi . That probably does't come close to commercial PT processing but should be a lot more effective than any pressure that could be reached using a vacuum cleaner exhaust. Treatment at plus one atmosphere might take a bit more time but could work.

[Iron Striker]

I have seen a video on a popular video website that uses a brake bleeder vaccum and a glass jar and one using a vessel for pressure painting. Both seem to work, one is more economical than the other. I new the heartwood of Mesquite was very durable. I'm glad to here it doesn't take much to make it stable.

Thanks for all your input.

Jamie

[knots]

50%/on, 50%/off topic. Mesquite is resinous as well as dense. This makes it durable and is part of the reason it will take on, and maintain, a beautiful finish The old timers used to use it for fence posts because of it's resistance to rot. Another use was firewood. It burns well, hot because of the resin content.

The off topic part is that since mesquite is dense and burns well it also is a good wood from which to make charcoal. It is plentiful in your neck of the woods since most people consider it a trash wood. Iron Striker, have you ever considered making charcoal for forging fuel ? Making quantities of charcoal in a pit is not all that hard if you have access to a back hoe. There is a lot of information discussing how to make smaller quantities on line.

[Iron Striker]

Knots,

At some point I do want to have a forge that uses solid fuel. I bought a Diamondback two burner gas forge back in the summer that I have been learning with. I started out thinking I wanted to blacksmith in the traditional way, but time constraints (of making charcoal) and the lack of a coal source lead me to go with the gas forge. Ironically a coal powered power plant is being constructed less than two miles from where I live. The coal they will be using is railroaded in from Motana I think (Powder River Coal?). I'll have to find a friend there when it is operation.

Mesquite is plentyfull around here and is considered a nusiance tree unless you use it for barbque or in my case knife handels. I'm going to cut some up and give the stabilizing a try myself. I'll post some results soon.

Thanks!

Jamie

[ThomasPowers]

Mesquite is NOT a good wood to make charcoal from. They do is for it's flavouring of meat cooked over it and as such it tends to not be fully charred (as pure charcoal imparts no wood flavour). It is quite resinous and tends to throw out a lot more forge fleas in a forge or bloomery. When making charcoal from it the resinous pockets make it more tricky to process as they can re-light and burn up the charcoal if not fully out.

I have a huge chunk of root they dug out when redoing the local road that I hope to slab using a 2man saw. Unfortunately it incorporates rocks and sand along with the gnarled grain (why the manual saw to start.)

[Iron Striker]

If the answer to the above is yes and you intend to either infuse it yourself or have it done. Here are my thoughts. I do not know any commercial place that will try and treat wood that is not dry. Some woods like desert ironwood are so dense they will not take the process. That said, I will add that I have used stabilized woods from a lot of different vendors and there is sometimes a big difference in the quality. Some are simply not worth the money they charge and some are really nice. I feel good knowing when a knife leaves me that I have done everything I can to make it top quality. And that applles to this process. I have not yet seen a home grown process that to me is worth doing. But like everything there may be some folks that can do this. If you wish the name of who I use send me a note.

Rich,

What is your criteria for determining if the handel material is well stabilized?

Thanks,

[knots]

Mesquite is NOT a good wood to make charcoal from. They do is for it's flavouring of meat cooked over it and as such it tends to not be fully charred (as pure charcoal imparts no wood flavour). It is quite resinous and tends to throw out a lot more forge fleas in a forge or bloomery. When making charcoal from it the resinous pockets make it more tricky to process as they can re-light and burn up the charcoal if not fully out.

I have a huge chunk of root they dug out when redoing the local road that I hope to slab using a 2man saw. Unfortunately it incorporates rocks and sand along with the gnarled grain (why the manual saw to start.)

There is room for disagreement. If the charcoal is properly prepared, the resins would be converted to carbon along with the rest of the wood being converted. Commercially produced mesquite charcoal was not mentioned in my posting.

[Rich Hale]

iron striker One of the best ways I use is to smell it,,the good stuff will have product all the way through the wood. the product smells like acryclic and when I drill out the center or cut with a saw I can smell that smell in the shop. and the good stuff finishes really nice, I sand to a fine grit and hit on the buffer...if the handle is scratrch later I can sand out the marks and rebuff, done deal. I have bought so called stabilized woods from other places and later on sent them to be done as they were not done right at all. there was not smell inside other than the parent wood. the good stuff costs more but I cannot have all the work in a knife and then skimp on the handle. If you are making give away or sell fro low price knives it may not work for you.

[Iron Striker]

iron striker One of the bes tways I use is to smell it,,the good stuff will have product all the way through the wood. the product smells like acryclic and when I drill out the center or cut with a saw I can smell that smell in the shop. and the good stuff finishes really nice, I sand to a fine grit and hit on the buffer...if the handle is scratrch later I can sand out the marks and rebuff, done deal. I have bought so called stabilized woods from other places and later on sent them to be done as they were not done right at all. there was not smell inside other than the parent wood. the good stuff costs more but I cannot have all the work in a knife and then skimp on the handle. If you are making give away or sell fro low price knives it may not work for you.

Rich,

Thanks for the reply. My thinking was to do as much as I can on the knives I make. Not trying to skimp at all. It is very important to me to make quality knives.

I just bought The Complete Bladesmith and it has a small section about using a home made vaccum set up to infuse glue into bone (I think) to stabilize it. It seems like it would work better with thin scales that with thicker pieces. We shall see. I would like to know who you use for the future. I almost have some Mesquite ready.

Jamie