Thread: Red mallee burl

Stabilising does't turn your wood to plastic nor does it give the surface a permanent coating although ponding bleed-out resin can pond on a surface that actually has to be removed. It also doesn't fill holes/visible cracks etc it just fills microscopic air voids between the fibres with resin thus increasing the density. As the stabilised wood has little or no air between its fibres it then doesn't react to temperature and therefore expansion/contraction is minimised. It also help the wood with water resistance but does not make it waterproof.

Red Mallee is already fairly dense but the burl does have possible minute cracks between the grain within its structure and hence stabilising can help. Stabilising will also help resist cracking from continuous movement and moisture variation.

Is it actually necessary, hmm good question, but it can't hurt and will help. All the professional knife makers I supply knife scales to insist on them being stabilised.

I forgot to mention however, to stabilise timber it must be first completely dry ie 0%MC. To do this something this size would need to be placed in an oven for 24hrs prior to soaking under vacuum in the stabilising resin. Because of the already carved shape this may indeed deform and crack the handle. With care in the drying process, ie in dehydrator first to reduce MC to ~4% before the oven, the risks would be minimised.

Thank you.
Mr Dai Sensei
And sorry for the late reply
You answered all my questions perfectly
Thank you

Cheers Matt