Help with cactus juice

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dnjmyers

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May 2, 2014
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I tried stabilizing for the first time. I used cactus juice and the ocean bue dye. I put it in the pot until all the bubbles stopped then stopped it and let it sit over night. I used a variety of woods. Then I cooked them for a few hours. I pulled them out and none of the blanks appeared to take the dye. What did I do wrong?
 
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I don't know I just tried on some pieces out of my junk pile and threw in corn cob also.
 
dnjmyers said:
I tried stabilizing for the first time. I used cactus juice and the ocean bue dye.
Click to expand...
Is this a liquid or powder dye?

dnjmyers said:
I put it in the pot until all the bubbles stopped then stopped it and let it sit over night.
Click to expand...
Did you let the pot set while still under vacuum or did you let air back in?
Did any dye take on the outside of the wood?
 
dnjmyers said:
I tried stabilizing for the first time. I used cactus juice and the ocean bue dye. I put it in the pot until all the bubbles stopped then stopped it and let it sit over night. I used a variety of woods. Then I cooked them for a few hours. I pulled them out and none of the blanks appeared to take the dye. What did I do wrong?
Click to expand...

You may haven't done anything wrong because we all experience issues to colour certain woods with Cactus Juice or not, some of the very dense woods just don't colour.

With that said, there are a few reasons as to why this happens, the very first and main one has to do with the colour pigments (powder or liquid) that do no dissolve sufficiently to be "transported" by the carrier, in this case, the Cactus Juice. The colour particles are basically "strained" as they are forced into the wood, Cactus Juice, water and other thin liquids may penetrate the wood but the colour stays behind this explain why the wood outside looks dyed but on the inside is not.

If the wood is not oily or heavy in silica you may end up with stabilized but uncoloured wood (natural CJ colour) but with oily woods, you may experience both, lack of CJ penetration and colour.

Now, there is one issue that many don't see as critical but I can tell you from experience if you have woods that you know will be difficult to stabilize, the safest and best method to apply is to make sure the wood is 100% moisture free and for this to happen, you need to oven dry the wood for 24 to 48 hours with the temperature about 60° Celsius, when you turn the oven off, have everything ready for stabilizing and as soon as wood loses half of its heat (warm to touch but not hot) you get the blanks in the vacuum chamber and covered with the Cactus Juice, start the pump and follow the normal procedures.

Atmospheric air contains a certain amount of moisture, high or low depending upon your location, the wood should be left inside the oven to cool down, make sure the dry wood is no exposed to the ambient when coming out of the oven if oven is relatively far away from the stabilization chamber, take the chamber, lid and CJ close to the oven, cover the wood with CJ and put the lid on then take it to the pump, this will guarantee minimal air exposure on the wood.

If you have woods that you don't know what they are and you want to stabilised/colour, you can make a test to easily identify unsuitable woods, simply by submerging a small piece of that/those woods in water for a couple of days, putting some weight so that the wood doesn't float, however, if when done and the weight is taken away, the wood is lightweight and floating that means troubles and if you want to make sure, cut the piece back 1" or so from the end grain, you will see it the wood inside is dry or wet...!

Another quick away is to weight the piece of wood before submerging it in water, after a couple of days, take it out, use a paper towel to remove any outside water and re-weight, no weight increase, no soaking...!

Good luck,

Cheers
George
 
dnjmyers said:
Can I stabilize my blanks again to try to darken it up a bit?
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If the blanks were properly stabilized/soaked in the first go, after you cure it, the wood accepts no more soaking or colouring however, if there are areas withing the wood that didn't soak the CJ the first time, you will be able to redo it and colour those areas with the same, darker or other colour.

Cheers
George
 
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