Stabilizing Wood

I love using stabilized woods: the grain really pops out , they have the consistency

of micarta or Corian, and you are assured that they will never be affected by moisture
Tutorials
Hints and or humidity. This means that they will never shrink, expand or warp,
Tips Page
( a small but common problem when using any natural materials for knife handles) .
3
Click on any
Unfortunately, I'm also cheap and hate the cost of processed stabilized woods.
of the
thumbnails
below for a Plus you're at the mercy of whoever you order it from, to pick a piece out of the pile for you.
more detailed
photo I looked at a lot of different ways to do this yourself to a slab of wood that you've

fallen in love with without having to make or buy an expensive vacuum set up

normally used. I modified a process that I heard about and found that this works mighty well.
Here's what you need to start: a one pint
can of Minwax High Performance Wood
Hardener, an airtight jar large enough to
hold the scales you're treating , a coffee
can large enough to hold the entire jar and
a nearby saucepan to keep a constant
supply of boiling water at hand. I'm going to
do a nice set of maple burl scales here.
Safety note: When I first read about this home process, the writer suggested
using a double boiler set up ( The jar sitting in a pan of boiling water) on a hot
plate to heat the Minwax Wood Hardener in the jar. I'm not the brightest guy
you'll ever meet, but this stuff has ketones in it. Uh...yeah. The fumes from
the ketones are so EXTREMELY flammable that I could never bring myself to
recommend this particular technique to anyone, no matter how well you think
you can sit there and supervise this. IT"S DANGEROUS!!!!. If you really want
to do it this way, make sure you do it in the home of someone you really don't
like. Use Google to look up "Flash Fires". If you're using anything with
ketones in it, try keep it at least seven miles away from any open source of
heat.
Set the scales inside the jar and cover with
wood hardener. Set the lid on loosely and
set this inside the coffee can

Pour boiling water in the coffee can to

surround the jar. The object here is to
safely heat the wood hardener in the jar. By
the way, please make sure the area is very
well ventilated. The smell is very strong
 enough to strip wallpaper and will assuredly
lower your IQ by a few points if inhaled for
a long time. Outside is best, by an open
window is a second choice.

Keep replacing the water as it cools off to

keep raising the temperature of the wood
hardener almost to the point of the boiling
water. You are also opening up the pores
of the wood. I put a very small hole in the
base of the coffee can to allow the hot
water to gradually drain as it cools.
You'll see the wood hardener bubble like
ginger ale as the air is displaced in the
wooden slabs. Keep doing this for about a
half hour until the jar and the wood
hardener is so hot that you need an oven
mitt to hold it. I didn't say very warm, I said
HOT.
Remove the jar and screw that lid down
tightly. Remember your high school physics
class? As the closed jar cools off, a
vacuum will be created inside which will
draw the wood hardener into those newly
opened pores. Let it cool off slowly and
keep the jar sealed for a week or so. The
white stuff on the side of the jar is some of
the wood hardener that foamed over the lip.
Take the scales out and let them cure in
open air for a few more days. You can
reseal the jar with the wood hardener in it,
and store it for future projects. Wow, look at
these things! Beautiful!. You'll also notice
that since they soaked up so much wood
hardener, they are twice as heavy.
Notes: This works great for 3/8" thick scales and the wood hardener soaks all
the way through. I haven't tried this process with blocks yet, but I'm going to
assume that it's best if you do some preshaping first to get the block close to
a final shape before you do this. This also works best with softer woods ( like
redwood ) and open pore woods ( just about any burl ). Some heavy and
dense woods ( like cocobolo or ironwood ) won't work well, but they really
didn't need to be stablized in the first place.
Soldering
OK, I've held off on doing this tutorial long enough, mainly since I'm such a
poor solderer. It's really not that tough to do. I think a lot of people just have a
mental block against it. Soldering is for both strength and looks and makes
your creation look extremely professional. I tried a number of hardware store
solders and kept getting frustrated. Once you try this Stay Brite stuff you'll
never try anything else. It flows at a low 430 degrees but is a lot stronger than
regular silver solder.
Basic supplies: a propane torch ( you don't
need one of those fancy ones), a vice to
hold the knife during soldering, ( as if I don't
have enough vices), and the star of the
show: Stay Brite solder. You're going to find
that a good solder like Stay Brite will make
your life a whole lot easier.
Make sure the guard fits tight and snug.
Don't plan on using the solder to fill large
gaps or you'll end up with a very weak
joint. Use a file to get a final fit on the
guard slot and a Dremel with fiberglass
cutting disk to square up the inside
shoulders of the tang. Test fit often The
slots on the machined guards are just a
hair undersized to allow you to do a final
fitting.

Yeah, that's more like it. Good tight fit.

Check it from all sides to make sure there
are no gaps anywhere.

I wrap the blade in cardboard to keep the

vice from marring the blade while being
clamped. A lot of people like to solder from
the front but I like working from the back,
hence the downward facing blade. Stay
Brite comes with an excellent liquid flux
which, when heated, cleans and etches the
surface lightly, helping the solder stick all
that much better. Apply sparingly.
Heat up the guard for a few seconds until
it's hot enough to melt the solder. A
common mistake is thinking that the torch
is used to melt the solder. The guard
should be hot enough that the solder turns
into a liquid and flows into those tiny gaps.
If the solder beads up, the guard isn't hot
enough and it'll just sit in a bead on the
top.
A few seconds later. Kind of anticlimactic.
Admire your work but don't touch for a few
minutes before attempting to pick it up.
Inspect it to make sure you haven't missed
any spots.
If you have any overly large blobs of solder,
you can use a braided solder wick (
available at Radio Shack or any electronics
store) . Heat up the solder with the torch
and this stuff will soak up the melted solder
like a rag soaking up water.
 Find a scrap piece of brass rod and grinf a
chisel tip on it as shown. Use this to gently
scrape the solder down flush to the surface
od the blade and guard. Go slow. The
brass is harder that the solder and softer
than the blade but could still scratch you
guard.
Use some fine ( 240 followed by 400 and
600) grit wet or dry sandpaper to do any
final touchups . Take your time and do a
nice job here. A lot of times another
knifemaker will inspect your joints first . A
nice job here just sets the tone for the
quality of the whole project.
OK, now we're ready to start planning what
kind of handle we're going to do. That'll be
another lesson.

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Got a good tip that you think your fellow knifemakers would like to know about? Drop me a
note at pjp@northcoastknives.com