how hard stabilized wood?

K

KenH

Well-Known Member
Is there much difference in the hardness of stabilized wood (K&G for example) - hard maple vs spalted hackberry for instance? Does the resin tend to make the woods pretty close to the same hardness? OR - is the resin used usually soft enough the wood is what determines how hard the finished stabilized wood is going to be?

Thanks for any guidance,

Ken H>
 
Ken, I have a piece of maple done by our very own, Faron Moore, at that sucker is super hard in comparison the other pieces that have not been treated. Some pieces have come back so dense and scratch resistant that it made working then nearly as difficult at the blade itself. hahaha. :)
 
Ken that's a good question.I try to make my end product hard enough to drill and tap and hold the screw or bolt as good or better than most aluminum . You just never know what the customers intent for the wood is

Faron Moore
Moores Customs
 
Thanks for the info, but I must not have phrased my question clearly. with BOTH pieces stabilized, how much difference will there be between a hard wood (such as hard maple) and a soft wood. Does the resin give enough strength/hardness to the soft wood, so once it's stabilized, is it as hard (almost anyway) as a hard wood that's been stabilized?

Thanks, Ken H>
 
Ken,
Stabilization is more about making woods less porous and less likely to expand, contract or absorb water that it is about just hardness. Because it allows you to use many woods that would be too porous to use, like Cal Buckeye or Red flame Ash woods for instance.

So to answer your question, my finding's are summed up below.

The original hardness of both woods will still be evident in the same proportion after a equal stabilization has been done on the two different woods.

Keep in mind that the harder the wood in the first place, the less stabilization material is will absorb.

I hope this makes sense? I may have just confused myself on this one? LOL:s12138:
 
Laurence, you have summed it up nicely. A soft wood that is stabilized will still be soft - harder than prior to stabilization, but still softer than a harder wood.

I have VERY LITTLE experience with stabilized wood, but have LOTS of experience with epoxies in boat work. I expect my confusion (a normal state:)) - was caused by thinking of the resin for stabilization as an epoxy which would be hard when cured. Much like "soft flexible" fiberglass cloth is made hard/strong by cured epoxy resin. I guess the stabilization process doesn't make wood fibers hard/strong as does epoxy resin for cloth fibers.

Thank you to all for having the patience to help me understand,

Ken H>
 
Ken,
Confused? Maybe you should stop breathing all of those fumes from the epoxies? :biggrin:
All joking aside,
My friend Faron Moore that owns the stabilzation company and answered your post sells really nice statilized woods and I am sure that he word gladly spend a few minutes with you on the phone to answer any other questions about the process you may have?
 
I have to say we get quite a bit of stabilized wood going through and I've had experiences on both sides. I got one company to stabilize some maple burl that had been submerged for at least 100 years. The raw wood was so soft and punky you could tear chunks out with your thumbnail. When stabilized it was - what's the expression? - harder than a woodpeckers lips. I didn't test it for hardness, but I did use some of it and it was as hard as any stabilized maple I've used. Very impressive.

More recently, I got a batch back from elsewhere that was quite the opposite. What started soft came back much softer than, for instance, the curly maple pieces.

So, I suspect your answer is related in part to process. By the way, both companies spoken of above are respected - just different results in this regard.
 
Thanks to all for the input - I guess how hard the finished product is will vary depending on the resin used by the stabilizing folks. I'm not trying to stabilize anything - a buddy and I got to talking, so I started trying to learn more about the stabilizing process and the end result. I'd never even held stabilized wood in my hands until I ordered some from a vendor off this board. Good stuff - flamed maple - looks good and it's HARD!!

Thanks again for all info and comments,

Ken H>
 
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