While I was home in OK for Christmas I decided to walk around in the woods to see what I could find. I found a huge burl and thought I had hit the mother-load. It looked great! I practically ran over to it, however upon further inspection it had been down for a long time and was pretty rotten inside. I grabbed hold and pulled a nice chunk off but the back and insides are still pretty soft. SO, the question is, having never done this before, how do I stabilize it and prepare it for pen blanks? I know I can add a wood hardener to it or cast it, but how to go about it is a different matter...here's the specific questions I have:
1. how do I clean it before applying hardener or casting? it's pretty soft, so I'm not sure I would want to scrub it.
2. once clean, should I apply a hardener even if I plan on casting it?
3. what is the order of preparation? hardener, cut, cast...or...cut, hardener, cast...or....????more steps I'm not thinking of?
4. how to apply the hardener...do I have to have enough to soak the entire thing or do I just pour it over it?
I'm sure there is a ton more I need to ask but that will get me started.
Thanks,
Mike
Hi Mike,
I would certainly harden it before I would process it into casting or else!
Cleaning is a little tricky but a air compressor with the nozzle a safe distance from the wood so that doesn't tear it away and/or with a vacuum cleaner to suck any dirt from it as you brush it gently with a medium soft brush. Try to cut in the bandsaw any unwanted pieces, this will save you lots on hardener, which works better if totally submersed but this require sometimes a lot more product than what you have available so, two other methods can be used. One is to put the hardening solution into a spray bottle and spray the whole piece with it, keep spraying around until the product is getting a little saturated and drippy. This indicate that the surface is soaked but the inside is not so you have to let it dry a bit (until if looks all soaked) and then continue on. Sometimes the outside layer dries too hard to let any subsequent liquid to get soaked into it so in this case, you can cut the piece into smaller pieces exposing the inside where you can spray the hardener again. If the piece you are hardening is to be kept whole and the outside layer is not letting any more liquid go in, then you have to use a very large syringe and needle to perforate through the hard layer and inject the hardener inside. A large size needle should be able to penetrate the outer layer already harden, if not, use a 1mm or whatever the diameter of the needle is, to drill a point (or more) of entry for the syringe.
Using the pressure pot does help to make the hardener penetrate through, again, if you don't have enough to submerse the piece in, this time use a plastic container that fits into the pot, then pour as much as you have of the hardener all over the wood then immediately close the pot and add pressure 60 to 80 PSI. Leave it there for an hour or so then open the pot "safely" drain the left over hardener into the original container (or anything else handy), turn the piece of wood up-side-down, pour the hardener again over the top, close and pressurize the pot once again. Depending on the size of the wood, and the amount of hardener used from the start, the process may require to be repeated on all 4 sides.
If the piece of wood is too big to fit on the pot then the clean and spray option would be the most appropriate!
Sometimes the material is too soft to handle (cut on the bandsaw, etc), in this case the first hardening spray stage is normally sufficient to allow the piece to be handled a little better, mainly if cutting is required. If the piece is to be cut into small pieces like pen blanks for example, after the first hardening, try to cut it into square blanks of dimensions no less than 2"x2", or bigger, re-spraying these square blanks, will allow you the then cut into pen blanks, which then can be sprayed or submersed into the hardener, now that they are small pieces. You basically work your hardener into "steps", from the piece full size to half, quarter, eight, etc., etc....!
I understand this is a lot of work, and can be a little expensive mainly if you have to pay $69 for a single litre of hardener as I have been, here in Australia. Hardener is made to soak, 1litre of liquid doesn't last long on a thirsty :beer: bone dry, spalted chunk of wood, believe me but, the results of "successfully" creating something from a nicelly spalted piece of wood, is indeed something else...!:wink::biggrin:
I hope this is of some help to you, if you have any further questions, please ask!
Cheers
George
