Add stain to wood hardener?

cpurser

Member
I'm working on my first knife. I have a DIY stabilizer rig, and I want to make stabilized dowels to use as pins. Can I add ebony stain to Minwax hardener, or should I just stain them first and then stabilize?

Thanks,
Chad
 
I think that adding the stain may prolong the hardening time but it would not hurt anything. But if you want to be carful just stain it first.
 
My problem with your plan is penitration, whether or not you add it to the wood hardener or not. To check it I would do a test run, both with and without the hardener if you want, and see how far into the wood the stain goes. What I'm concerned about is that you will stain some of the doweling and when you sand your handle down you remove the stained layer. I've tried some home stabilizing, Minwax hardener included, and have decided that it's really not worth while with the exception of getting boiled linseed oil thoughout the block or scale, but that's not really stabilization either. If you really need to have a piece of wood stabilzed, it's best to have it done professionally. These outfits have better equiptment and proprietory resin mixtures designed to do the job. Also remember that that all woods need stabilization and there are some that are too dense and oily to treat.

Doug
 
Penetration would be my concern also, as well as effecting the quality off the wood hardener. I think I would submerge in stain, pull a vacum then let dry, once dry, stabilize as you would any other wood.

Let us know how it works.

God Bless
Mike
 
I assume you might not be aware......MinWax wood hardener is NOT waterproof. That means that once you "stabilize" some wood with it, and it cures.....if the wood ever gets wet, it will turn a milky white. I learned this the hard way....a few years ago I attempted to stabilize with it.....after stabilizing, I placed the wood on wax paper, on a picnic table outside my shop to dry. I forgot it that evening when I closed the shop, and that night we got a heavy dew......next morning as I was walking to the shop, I noticed the wood and took it into the shop. The entire surface of all the blocks were a pasty white color. No problem! I'm gona sand then anyway......didn't work. The "milky" color was all the way through the blocks. I thought it might just have been a fluke....so I did another few blocks, let them cure for a week, then spritzed them with water from a spray bottle.....within 5 mins they turned milky white.

While it might be fun and "cool" to "stabilize" your own materials, unless you're willing to spend big bucks to acquire the proper chemicals, you are time and money ahead by either purchasing from one of the established stabilizers, or sending your wood to them.
 
Chad,

Have fun poking the pooch with the miniwax Hardener.
I tried that stuff like the others with marginal success!
There are only two Professional stabilizer's that I use for having my wood stabilized at or buying block/Scales from.
K & G Supply, & WSSI. I have been using both for over 12 years and feel no need to change.
Most of the others "Stabilizers" barely penetrate the surface.

Enjoy and get back to us!

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com/
 
After my incident I started doing some research on the product.....no where in the product literature does it say anything about it being waterproof. I called Minwax customer service and asked if the product was waterproof....after them beating around the bush for 10mins, telling me that once wood filler, primer, and paint were applied, "the product is reasonably waterproof", I finally got them to admit that the wood hardener itself IS NOT waterproof. Good luck with your efforts, but take it from me, it's the wrong product for the application.
 
Thanks for the Delrin suggestion. Where can I find those?

I'm sure lots of suppliers have it in "pin length", but no more than what it costs, it's still economical to buy it in longer lengths and then cut for your own needs.
If you can't source locally, do a google search for "delrin rod". Here is one source of many:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003SLEZ7C/ref=biss_dp_sa1#productDescription

Like everything else, it will have pros/cons depending on application. But short of using actual ebony wood, it may be the best way to achieve the look you're after.
 
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