~Ended~ Spalted Guava Knife Handle or Cut it for Pen Blanks

[vegas urban lumber]

Hey Trev ( @vegas urban lumber ),
Did you ever get this spalled guava ? It's been almost 2 years ago now. But I've been trading some notes with John (he turned one chunk of that aspen stump I dug out) and he's sending a few smaller pieces back to me to stabilize. So I figured it makes sense to compile a batch of stuff if I'm going to go through the effort of setting up the vac pump etc etc. So if you have some of that guava you want stabilized (or if you just have a couple pieces you want to sell me) I'll stabilize them later this month.

yes i have
are you dyeing as well?

 

[DLJeffs]

yes i have
are you dyeing as well?

I have never dyed before but I'm happy to give it a go, provided it doesn't involve a major investment in equipment or dye or time. I don't even know does one dye at the same time as stabilizing or does one dye prior to stabilizing? I'll google some videos about it.

 

[vegas urban lumber]

I have never dyed before but I'm happy to give it a go, provided it doesn't involve a major investment in equipment or dye or time. I don't even know does one dye at the same time as stabilizing or does one dye prior to stabilizing? I'll google some videos about it.

i don't know much about the process

 

[DLJeffs]

Trev ( @vegas urban lumber ) - I watched a few videos about dyeing and stabilizing and I don't think I care to get that involved. First because I like the natural look of wood rather than dyed. Second, it appears the entire volume of Cactus Juice has to be dyed (they put the wood into a vac tank of dyed liquid and afterwards put it directly in the oven to cure, so I'm pretty sure the Cactus Juice is colored) which means the gallon I have would all be dyed, which means i'd have no clear Cactus Juice left afterwards and that dyed leftover would probably sit here forever. Third, I'd have to order and buy the dye(s) to tint the Cactus Juice. And fourth, it looks to be a rather messy process with dye getting everywhere. So short answer - no I won't dye and stabilize. I'll just stabilize. I'd still like a couple pieces of that guava like we talked about but it's up to you. Let me know what you want to do and we'll go from there.