Dye stabilized wood

[Harty]

I see many custom call makers reference " dye stabilized". Could someone educate me as to what this process entails?

Thank!

[HookedonHooks]

A coloring dye is added to the stabilizer to give it an unnatural color. Outside of changing the color, sometimes a particular color makes the natural wood grain and figure pop better than before.

If you're unaware of what stabilizing wood is, it's done to many burls and softer woods prior to turning so that the wood doesn't just blow up on the lathe.

[Harty]

A coloring dye is added to the stabilizer to give it an unnatural color. Outside of changing the color, sometimes a particular color makes the natural wood grain and figure pop better than before.

If you're unaware of what stabilizing wood is, it's done to many burls and softer woods prior to turning so that the wood doesn't just blow up on the lathe.

Thanks much Hookedonhooks. What would the stabilizing agent be?

[doublespurs21]

one brand name is cactus juice wood stabilizer. The risen displaces air pockets throughout the grain structure, creating a dense blank that is nearly impervious to moisture changes and can be polished to a high gloss. This works on wood the are spalted like maple and others.

[Harty]

Thanks guys. I really appreciate this insight. The more I know about the call making process the more I will appreciate them.

[M,Yingling]

its a cool process  you have to bake wood in a oven for 24 hrs to get all moisture from the wood, then u got to run a vacum pump normally  12 hrs or so depending how long till bubbles stop coming from wood at this point u add colored dye if u want ,,  then let it soak 12 hrs or so ,,,and this all depends on how hard wood is ,,  then bake the wood again once the resin hits a certain temp it becomes hard ,, lots guys use cactus juice it runs around $90 a gallon and depending how soft or punky the wood is you can get any where from 10 to 20 blanks stabilized from one gallon

check out youtube lots videos their ,, it can become a time consuming process but worth it on end result

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQxtHxfqbeQ