# Natural stabilising wood



## Jaeger (Nov 10, 2021)

Hy folks,

I want to share something about one way to "stabilize" wood. Everybody knows the technic about stabilising wood with resin. That's a perfect was to stabilize soft wood for example and colorize them and so on.

But there is also a way to stabilize it with wax. Naturally. I think it's not worth it for soft wood because it doesn't make it harder/better.

It's just a way to prevent the wood for moisture and give it a permanent shiny and resistant surface finish.

I use carnauba wax, melt it slowly and put the wood into. The wood has to be as dry as possible! After a while the air pops out of the pores and the wax fill these "holes" out. The liquid wax starts to foam, because the air in the wood.

When it stops foaming, depends on the wood you use, it's completely soaked with the wax and you can put out.

It darkened up bright (white) woods a bit. It becomes a bit like ivory or so. But for normal colors it makes no visible difference.











I don't recommend it for scales because i don't know how durable it is when it's glued to the steel. But it's a good way for hidden tangs i think. 

You can grind and sand it like normal wood because the melting point of the wax is over 90°C. 


Just something I wanted to share with you or those who never heard about that.

Greets Fabian


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## Knivperson (Nov 10, 2021)

Cool! Have before and after pics of different woods? Would be curious to see.


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## Jaeger (Nov 10, 2021)

Sorry, have no pictures 
I've made some cocobolo scales and the color of them was nearly the same as before. The one you can see on the picture in the previous post was hornbeam. It darkened up a little bit, looks like ivory. It was a bit more bright before. The more you use the wax, the darker it will be. As I said I wouldn't recommend it for bright wood. But for dark wood it's a good alternative i guess.

Greets Fabian


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## Bensbites (Nov 10, 2021)

This is a great idea. The biggest difference is going to be durability. Once the “standard” method of monomer has saturated the wood, the monomer is polymerized making a matrix of plastic within the voids. Assuming you keep the handle above the wax’s melting point it shoudl
Stay in there. 
I am curious how durable the surface is? 
have you tried this process while under vacuum? Can you glue up these peices or does the wax interfere?
Thanks for sharing.


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## Jaeger (Nov 10, 2021)

Yeah that's the fact. It's not another way to harden soft wood like resin does. It's just a finish you never have to refresh like with applying oil frequently.

Can't measure the durability  but when the wax is hardened it will be pretty hard. 
I have no Vakuum chamber and because you have to "cook" it in a pot it could be difficult to do it in a chamber. 

I made some cocobolo scales and glued them to a knife. It's okay so far, no issues with it but I don't know how stable it is. Never dropped it or so.... That's why I would recommend it for blocks and hidden tangs. Secure it with a pin if you want and it will never came apart 

Greets Fabian


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## daveb (Nov 10, 2021)

Sous Vide to do it under vacuum?


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## Jaeger (Nov 10, 2021)

Why not  i don't have the equipment but if you can, try it out. Would be curious


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