please help me understand what I want to do

[Mr Fixit]

Ive been turning pens for a few years, off an on. I've used some of the Burls and Swirls blanks and similar blanks and really like the way they look. I've also played with blanks that I find with cracks and voids, filling them with everything from wood dust, ebony dust, coffee, and inlay dust such as Inlace and other 'colored' items.

All that to say this....

I have a special revolver that I want to make or have made grips for. It is a Double action Smith and Wesson, so its not the easy western style grips. What I have in mind is some type of random inlay very much like the burls and swirls blanks.
I have a piece of Curly Maple which has a knot in it on one end. The knot goes deep and through on 3 sides.

So, I need some help with the wood. Does it need to be stabilized? What about casting to fill the voids with color? Is there someone close to the Dallas area that can either show me how, or actually do the work for me. If not, what will I need to do to have the finished wood look the way I want.

I am sort of planning on sending the wood, assuming I can get the wood the way I want, to a custom grip maker who uses CNC equipment. The finished wood would have to be able to be worked with a CNC mill.

What options do I have?

 

[GaTurner83]

I have no experience at casting worthless wood or Burls and swirls at the moment,but have read everything I can find on the subject.From what I gather when casting such worthless wood pieces you want to put it under pressure after casting to keep the resin from pulling away from the wood.As for stabilizing it I would say as long as the wood around the void area is good solid it shouldn't need stabilizing. If it were me I would go alumilite resin instead of polyester resin.The alumilite resin will be able to machined on a cnc machine fairly easy where as the PR would probably be to brittle.I would say the alumilite would most likely hold up to the repeats recoil of the revolver a lot better as well.

 

[Justturnin]

I would think if you had a nice piece of Live edge that was pretty flat and 5.5"X5.5"sq x +/- 1" you could cast it whole and rip it down the middle and have two live edge pieces from the same burl which will give the best possible grain match. I would not do it like normal gun handle scales, which I believe are 2"x2.5"x5.5" spindle that is stabilized and ripped down the middle for grain match,because one would be all wood and one all resin.

 

[Mr Fixit]

I guess i wasn't clear on what I have and what I want to do with it. I'm about 500 miles from home, so pics will have to wait, but let me try to explain.

what I have is a piece of curly maple that is about 5"x6"x5'. No thats not a typo it is a piece 5 feet long.
The end of it has what I consider the best looking wood. There is a knot hole that goes through the front and one side. Around that knot, and in the general area of it is some dark figure lines which look like spalting, but I'm pretty sure its part of the darker knot structure.

Anyway, I have cut the end off and have a piece, including the knot that is about 5"x6"x8". I want to fill the void in the knot hole. There is some punky wood in the knot, but it is mostly void. I want to fill the void, leaving the punky wood in which I hope to stabilize.

I'm only looking for small highlights of the casting medium, just to highlight the wood and bring some contrast to an already somewhat figured wood.

So, I need to know what I can do to fill the void and at the same time stabilize the punky wood in the voids, so that the entire piece can be run through a CNC mill to make grip scales.

 

[PTownSubbie]

I would guess based on what you just said...

remove the portion of the wood that you want to remove (knot & punkyness)
stabilize that piece either professionally or through home methods
fill the previously removed void with resin or fill of choice (many people use crushed stone for this very purpose)

Just some thoughts broadcast outloud......

 

[jjudge]

I've used wood hardener (from local handyman store) for punky walnut, when turning bowls.
I would think that you could use that to harden/stabilze the punk -- then epoxy the voids, if their not too large -- and then, if needed, put the thing under some casting/stablizing resin process.

I also assume you could do casting/stabilization to harden the punk and help solidify the void. This would probably require that you fill the void with something of color first (epoxy w/stuff? colored epoxy, etc.).

Of course, test on punky pieces of that, or similar, wood ... because some hardeners darken the wood a tad.

One post said pressure. You can put pressure on, but I believe that just keeps the air/gas in the liquid/resin diffused. It may push resin into air pockets, also. The casting folks probably have more experience with that. I think their goal is mainly to mitigate the air bubbles in the resin pen blanks. I could be wrong.

This comes from my little casting experience, and some scuba diving experience (gas diffused in tissue, blood, under pressure vs. at pressure vs. low pressure: as in an aircraft) ...

However, a I am more aware that a vacuum is more likely to pull air out of punky material, voids, air pockets, and cause the diffused gas to form bubbles and "foam" out of the liquid. This seems a bit more sure for stabilizing (vs. bubble avoidance) to me than pressure.​