Questions on stabilizing

[elkhorn]

Good morning! I've decided to try stabilizing and purchased some ZKTR90 from Kennedy's Custom Calls (Jon sent me a sample duck call blank and the wood polishes just like acrylic using MM and plastic polish).

Two questions:
1) Does it make sense to drill a small hole in the blanks (5 or 7 mm) to allow better penetration of the resin closer to the tube? This would also serve as a pilot hole for drilling the larger tube sizes.

2) What woods are good candidates for stabilizing and are there any that are not?

Thanks for any help!

Have a great weekend.

 

[Airbear77]

That is a great question. I am just starting to do some stabilizing myself and wondered that. It seems like it should be better to do it that way. Curious what others say.

 

[JohnU]

I've been stabilizing for about a year and use cactus juice from mesquiteman. I'm not an expert but in my opinion if you were using larger blanks for duck calls, it would be a good idea to drill a small hole for easier penetration and air escape. As for woods, most commom woods are fine, like boxelder, buckeye, spalted maple, and woods that have gotten soft from age. Where you will have problems are with oily woods like olive, bocote, cocobolo, and rosewood. Even bamboo won't take the juice very well. Get with Curtis, mesquiteman. He's the resident expert. Good luck!

 

[elkhorn]

Thanks, John. I don't make duck calls (yet), but I was just wondering if having the resin go into the wood from both the outside and the middle would give it the most strength.

Take care,

 

[Jim Burr]

Drilling wont matter, the vacuum and reverse soak is what creates penetration...it's going to be drawn into the wood pores anyway. What kind of wood do you want to stabilize? It's typical for the softer woods...I do hundreds of buckeye burl blanks a year. But there is a good argument that's been covered over and over for stabilizing many kinds of burls due to the inherent unstable grain structure. redwood, amboyna, BLM and others can benefit.
Your primary thought should be, if you need to drill a hole...does the wood need to be stabilized?

 

[elkhorn]

Thanks, Jim. Good food for thought.