# Advantages to Stabilizing pen blanks ???



## matt.mackinnon (May 13, 2015)

4-5 years ago I got into turning pens and it was great fun. I had a small General midi lathe and it was a great way to pass the time. When I moved, I sold my lathe and have since bought a much larger OneWay. I have invested in a whole array of interesting woods from all over the world with quite a bit of burls and exotics. I also invested in turning between centers and have the CNC turned bushings made. I have had in the past times when turning that the the wood (burl) just blew out. might have been a catch, but could have been a screw up on my end.

I am getting back into the pen game again as I have found new relatives in the UK and they all want a pen, and it seems their friends to too and are willing to pay good money to get interesting wood.

I have invested in a vacuum chamber and a pressure pot and now can stabilize and cast pens too. I am wondering for all my pens if it is worth stabilizing them all before turning. The thought that these are now being sold and the last thing I would want is for a pen to crack as you generally turn the wood to essentially a thin veneer around the brass tube. Will adding cactus juice help increase the strength of the pen to withstand more abuse (like getting dropped) or am I fooling myself?

I know all about using thin CA for a finish, but wonder if this is more of a surface treatment than being an integrated part of the wood.  My thinking is that wood being a collection of fibrous cells that hold moisture when the tree was alive, the stabilizing process fills those cells back up with resin.

Thanks for any advice that can be given.

Matt


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## wood-of-1kind (May 13, 2015)

Not ALL woods require stabilization. Use the "juice" on soft, punky woods. Doing 'all' blanks will not necessarily make the blank indestructible.


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## RickLong (May 13, 2015)

For the more dense woods (Amboyna, Ebony, Snakewood, etc.), I stabilize all my blanks before I turn them down.

 I do this for mostly two reason. The "blowout" risk when turning these blanks is simnifically less when the wood has been stabilized. If I can reduce my blowout rate by 80% or better, its a no brainer with very expensive dense woods. 

 Exhibiting at craft shows, the other vendors selling pens generally do not stabilize their woods unless they bought the wood already stabilized. Which gives a good competitive advantage why your pens are "better" and/or more expensive than the other vendors. In my show booth, I have a couple engraved signs stating the wood pens have been stabilized. This definitely helps with why they should buy the pen at my booth and not the other five pen turners at the show. 

Just my thoughts... Hope they helped!

Rick


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## Fish30114 (May 14, 2015)

I think it comes down to a CBA--cost-benefit analysis, stabilizing fluid is not cheap, and your time is worth what it's worth. Taking the extra time and expense is dependent on which woods I have. If you have a lot of heavily burled wood I would definitely recommend stabilizing it. One other often not mentioned benefit of stabilizing is adding color when doing it, I have taken some pretty lackluster blanks and added some dye to the stabilizing fluid for that batch, and ended up with some pretty cool looking pieces.

Oh yeah, and it's another thing YOU can do, and to me it's fun!


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