Well, allowed me some observations to what I read so far,
Firstly, welcome to the world of wood stabilizing, I do my fair use of the Cactus Juice and so far so good.
When comes to stabilizing, there are a few rules that are pretty much common to all of us, the stabilisation process has a learning curve, and every aspect of it has been well discussed and documented on IAP however, if you have any specific questions, I would be more than happy to assist you.
Part of the essence of wood stabilizing and its costs, is very directly related to what the use is going to be used for, for example, 95% of knife makers, will only use stabilized wood, regardless of the woods natural density, and as you may understand, there are very good reasons why, a knife made with a properly stabilized wood blank, will last a lot longer and will look good for much longer than any raw wood with any type of finish (exceptions do apply...!)
As for pen blanks, if you make your own blanks that you use to make your own pens, is really up to you if you want to have the expense and time of stabilizing woods that, do not need stabilizing. On the other side of the spectrum, you have the blanks that have great features and grains but, are either very spalted, or very decomposed that, are pretty much unworkable without some sort of hardening, stabilizing does really shine in this case, transforming pieces of wood into beautiful pens, bowls or any other items where the option would be the dump, most of this wood is useless as firewood, also...!
If you are stabilizing with the intention so sell some or all the blanks you do, I strongly suggest that you make a rigorous selection of what you've got in woods/blanks and determine which ones are "worth" to stabilize. I mean worth because, there is a cost to stabilizing, for some of us, that cost is considerable, you certainly don't want the spend your juice and time, stabilizing blanks that, have nothing to go for them, there is, do not have any qualities that would justify the cost and time of stabilization, and try to sell them, you may be able to at almost a give away price, that will put you in the "red" in a flash...!
There are many ways people see wood but, if you are considering stabilizing to recover your costs and make a little money, you need to learn what are the woods that will give the best return for you money and time., the person buying them, will certainly look for something that will justify the extra cost, which in my case is of approx. AU$1.50 per blank for the stabilization and blank's presentation/finish, as that is what your customer will see...!
As before, if you have any questions in relation to correct wood selection for stabilization purposes, you are welcome to ask...!
There is no need to get all "fired up" with comments that are not offensive, try to interpret what you read before you say something that you may regret, after all, IAP is well known to be friendly, accommodating, welcoming and very generous with the knowledge sharing so, think of what others will think of you, reading your unnecessary comments/responses, that are not really, called for...!
Take this, as a friendly and honest piece of advice from someone that has been on all sides of the fence and likes to keep the peace among friends...!
Best of luck...!
Cheers
George
