Some stabilized knife scales

[Timberwolf]

Here's a shot of four spalted pecan blanks that will eventually become scales for pistols or knives.. I vacuum stabilized these last year in the homebrew "spaghetti jar" vac chamber I built last year..You can see how the "Gator Juice" has been transformed into "plastic"..It is very hard and they are at least double their original weight now...but they machine very well and can be carved without too much difficulty. The wood was fairly "punky" before stabilization, but they are solid as a rock now..After being in the vac chamber, they are then wrapped in aluminum foil and "baked" in a 200* oven for 30 minutes to harden..The wood carving knife handle below in the pic is Black and White Ebony and stabilization would not be very effective on wood as hard and dense as this is...

I was wondring how a spoon would be after stabilization????

[RonB1957]

Smaller items do infuse well and the set up is inexpensive. Especially with softer woods. Ink pen blanks, one small part at a time. When you get into larger projects that require larger vessels to hold the resin and part, stronger vacuum pumps, cold traps, etc. then things start to change. Oh, and don't forgot to add in the larger easy bake oven. The warping is a real pain and requires thicker wood as well. So then the cost goes up in both terms of wood supplies and resin. You are infusing more wood to compensate for the warping. Notice I didn't mention your time.
Set up expense is more a question of home hobby use for pens, bottle stoppers, etc. Or more of a commercial use. Then again. Is there an inexpensive hobby or business to get into?

[Timberwolf]

No doubt it is cheaper to buy the blanks than to "do it yourself"..but ever since I can remember, I have had a "curious" mind and the thought of pulling the air out of the wood and replacing it with a type of "plastic" to harden and preserve it has kinda "fascinated" me..and no doubt the stabilizing liquid is expensive.. But the vac can be done with a hand-held device from HF. It is just more labor and time intensive..Some of the nicest woods are too soft or punky to be of any use without some means of hardening it. I don't pretend to be an "expert" at it and just do it to satisfy my insatiable curiosity about things in general..And I have always like to try and salvage the "unsalvageable"...That may have been what has caused me to become a "pack rat"!!!

[RonB1957]

My shop is filled with curious questions. Some day I may actually answer one of them.