Home stabaliztion using cactus juice

C Craft

C Craft

Well-Known Member
Has anyone ever tried doing a home stabilization on Elk antler and used something for coloration. Say Potassium Pergamate or perhaps Rit Dye. My thought is trying to kill to birds at one time. Using a home vacuum chamber to stabilize the pithy area of the Elk antler and do a amber coloration of the interior of the Elk antler.

If you have ever experimented with something similar I would love to hear the process and the results. My fear is that the coloration might contaminate the Cactus Juice and mess up the whole process!

Anyone got any ideas/experience on this subject I would love to hear from you!
 
I bought some Cactus Juice in my last order from the Boss, but haven't had a chance to use it yet. I agree that adding color during stabilization would open a lot of creative doors. I'm sorry that I can't offer any advice myself, but I hope someone can as I have the same questions. I'll follow this thread with great interest.
 
I just bought a jug too, haven't used it yet either. But, I did have a question about it's shelf life and emailed the maker, he responded quickly and seemed very helpful. Drop him a line, I'm sure he'll tell us about it.

Info@turntex.com

TurnTex Woodworks
Curtis O. Seebeck, Owner
531 Hunter Ridge
San Marcos, TX 78666
512-738-0775
Or via Skype: turntex
 
Email has been sent to Info@turntex.com

about this subject, so will see what he has to say, as well I gave him a link to this thread so maybe we will get a response one way or another!

In the meantime anyone who has tried to color at the same time you are stabilizing please feel free to join in with any info you can share good or bad!
 
Yes, dying and stabilizing at one time is done all the time. It is as simple as adding dye to the Juice and going to town! I offer Alumilite dyes which I have found to be the best since they are a reactive dye and are pure liquid. This means that nothing you stabilize will "filter out" any dye particles. That said, coloring antler while stabilizing is hit or miss and you will most likely not get a uniform color. This is due to the varying density of antler. The more porous areas will pick up more colored Juice than the harder, denser areas. Higher concentrations of colored Juice will make it darker and more rich in that area.

As for dying and then stabilizing, you are correct that you will end up coloring your Juice. Even if you dye and then dry really well, there is a super good chance that when you incorporate the Juice into the material, it will wet out the dye particles in the material and they will be leached back into the Juice under vacuum. That has been my experience with wood and dye anyway.

Hopefully I have answered your questions. If not, please let me know! Always eager to help in any way that I can!
 
It would be interesting to see which sections are "stabilized" more than others and which sections are not stabilized at all - aka differential stabilization. A fine idea with potential for unintended information.
 
It is not a matter of stabilized more than others! All we are doing with stabilizing is filling the empty space in the material with resin, thus reducing moisture absorption and its negative effects. Portions of a material will be more and less dense. Dense material has less empty space in it to begin with. However, if nearly all of the empty space in a piece of material is filled, then it is properly and thoroughly stabilized.

Some folks get wrapped up in weight gain in material. They will say that a dense wood did not stabilize well because it only gained 10% weight while a super punky piece gained 100%. However, if the super punky wood had the ability to gain 200% weight while the dense piece only had the ability to gain 11%, the dense piece is stabilized better than the punky piece!
 
TurnTex said:
Yes, dying and stabilizing at one time is done all the time. It is as simple as adding dye to the Juice and going to town! I offer Alumilite dyes which I have found to be the best since they are a reactive dye and are pure liquid. This means that nothing you stabilize will "filter out" any dye particles. That said, coloring antler while stabilizing is hit or miss and you will most likely not get a uniform color. This is due to the varying density of antler. The more porous areas will pick up more colored Juice than the harder, denser areas. Higher concentrations of colored Juice will make it darker and more rich in that area.

As for dying and then stabilizing, you are correct that you will end up coloring your Juice. Even if you dye and then dry really well, there is a super good chance that when you incorporate the Juice into the material, it will wet out the dye particles in the material and they will be leached back into the Juice under vacuum. That has been my experience with wood and dye anyway.

Hopefully I have answered your questions. If not, please let me know! Always eager to help in any way that I can!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the answers you gave us on the subject. I always appreciate it when someone takes the time to reach out and personally answer questions.

Rudy thanks for the link on the thread!
 
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A friend stabilized some hackberry for me using cactus juice. This is a knife made for the wifey.

I would have to ask him the process, but if I remember correctly, he uses leather dye.
 
I bought a chamber and Cactus juice from Turn Tex. Curtis is a great guy and has been a big help in getting me started in stabilizing. I have used up my first half gallon of juice, and am happy with the results, haven't tried the dyes yet.

Dale
 
I will second that turntex is the way to go. I bought some cactus juice from him and received a shipping refund because he was able to send it cheaper. Super good customer service, and I also searched all around and you can't beat his prices
 
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