# Casting vs Stabilizing



## Johnturner (Aug 2, 2014)

OK I'll play dumb. What is the difference between casting and stabilizing? I thought that if you stabilized something it was cast?

HELP!


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## Schroedc (Aug 2, 2014)

Stabilizing fills small pores in wood and completely impregnates it. Casting fills larger voids with a resin and bonds to the wood but does not necessarily penetrate deeply.


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## fredito (Aug 2, 2014)

How deep in a blank will stabilizing go...pen blank, call blank, bowl blank?


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## APBcustoms (Aug 3, 2014)

fredito said:


> How deep in a blank will stabilizing go...pen blank, call blank, bowl blank?



I've never stabilized anything but my guess is that it depends on the wood like spalted maple and cocobolo will have completely different effects.


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## Schroedc (Aug 3, 2014)

Stabilizing goes all the way through, for dense stuff like cocobolo I would not bother as the wood is already hard enough. For bowls I'd rough it out first then stabilize if I can so I don't waste resin on material I'm going to remove anyways.


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## APBcustoms (Aug 3, 2014)

Schroedc said:


> Stabilizing goes all the way through, for dense stuff like cocobolo I would not bother as the wood is already hard enough. For bowls I'd rough it out first then stabilize if I can so I don't waste resin on material I'm going to remove anyways.



Really even with all that oil?


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## Cody Killgore (Aug 3, 2014)

About the only thing I put on a knife handle that is not stabilized is desert ironwood. With a DIY set-up it is hard to get good results on a very oily dense wood. I send those out to Mel at Wood Dynamics. For the other spalted stuff that really needs to be stabilized, I do it myself.

Basically like they said. Stabilizing stabilizes the wood in order to try and prevent it from moving with moisture changes. In the process, it tends to also make it a bit tougher. You should never expect stabilizing to fill cracks/voids. Casting is used to fill any cracks/holes/voids that may be in the wood. Does not penetrate the wood but allows you to use wood that would otherwise be in the trash bin.


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## Schroedc (Aug 3, 2014)

APBcustoms said:


> Really even with all that oil?



I'm not quite sure what you are asking, I don't do bowls out of cocobolo so I wouldn't stabilize those either. as far as dense, oily woods, I'm not sure how well the resin would penetrate on oily woods anyways and since I find the material hard enough anyways I've never tried to stabilize those, I typically only use stabilization for softer material that would blow up or tear out badly on the lathe. I have stabilized hard maple and a few other hard woods but in those cases it was more to dye the wood all the way through than for the need to make them harder.


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## APBcustoms (Aug 3, 2014)

Schroedc said:


> I'm not quite sure what you are asking, I don't do bowls out of cocobolo so I wouldn't stabilize those either. as far as dense, oily woods, I'm not sure how well the resin would penetrate on oily woods anyways and since I find the material hard enough anyways I've never tried to stabilize those, I typically only use stabilization for softer material that would blow up or tear out badly on the lathe. I have stabilized hard maple and a few other hard woods but in those cases it was more to dye the wood all the way through than for the need to make them harder.




I didn't see the comma so I read it wrong lol

Reactions: Funny 1


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