How should I prepare buckeye burl blanks?

[jedgerton]

I purchased some buckeye burl blanks and I'm finding that they are quite soft and pourous. I successfully turned one using CA to harden it once it had been turned. Does anyone have a recipe for preparing such wood prior to turning or during the process?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Dario]

You can have it stabilized.

You can also do as what you already did with a little twist. After drilling the hole, apply thin CA inside and let it soak well. If you can plug the other end so the CA won't flow out easily...much better. Re-drill then glue the tube. Before your final cut, soak it in thin CA again. I use thin CA as sanding sealer also and finish to fully stabilize it. So far the ones I sold in my office that were treated this way are still looking good and they are about 2 years now.

A lot of work, but the sure look good when finished.

 

[PenWorks]

Send them to Steve to be stabilized, quality work, reasonable prices, great service.

http://www.rrpwhite.com/

 

[jedgerton]

Thank you guys, both of these are great ideas. I have enough to try both ideas and I will. Thanks for your help!

 

[ctEaglesc]

What Dario said.
People turned soft wood long before commercial stabilizing was available.
Of course I don't know how they did it without CA.[]

 

[loglugger]

White wood glue will work but takes longer.
Bob

 

[mick]

Originally posted by ctEaglesc
<br />What Dario said.
People turned soft wood long before commercial stabilizing was available.
Of course I don't know how they did it without CA.[]

There was a time that CA wasn't available? Now that's really the dark ages! []

 

[Mark4583]

I soaked couple of the buckeye in Minwax Wood Hardener under some vacume. Havent turned them yet, Might have to do one this week end, I kinda forgot about them when I set them out to dry.

 

[TAld]

Mark, please post your results and give me a couple clues, such as, what do you use to pull the vaccum--what type of container, how much vaccum, for how long, etc. I would like to give it a try one day.
Tom

 

[Mark4583]

I just used a old hand vacume pump I had when I was a mechanic, hooked it up to a 1 gal pickle jar, dont think I got it down much past 10" of vacume but I could see air bubble's comming out of the wood, let it set for about 24hrs then I let set out to air dry.
Il turn one this weekend and if its not a complete FUBAR, il post the pic.

 

[tone]

An aquaintance who tried the minwax stabilizing technique said that it worked well but wound up more expensive than sending the blanks out for professional stabilization. Soft, dry, buckeye will soak up an enormous amount of minwax hardener. I use the same method as Dario which works well but also uses a good amount of thin CA. I have not figured the out the cost. I only do a few pieces at a time.

Tony