# What's your favorite wood stabilizer resin?



## Quickstep (Apr 10, 2012)

I'm going to try stabilizing a piece of spalted maple soon. I've been reading up on it and I've found several options for the resin - Stick Fast, Cactus Juice, Minwax Wood Hardener, Plexiglass dissolved in acetone.....

Any favorites here? Any that work the best, easiest or most predictably?


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## Miller Woodworks (Dec 11, 2013)

I use acrylic dissolved in acetone, so that's where my vote goes. If I'm not mistaken, the Minwax wood hardener is essentially the same thing.


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## Quickstep (Apr 10, 2012)

What's the ratio of acrylic to acetone?


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## Bill Boehme (Feb 9, 2014)

Quickstep said:


> What's the ratio of acrylic to acetone?


That would be hard to say. The acrylic starts out as solid pieces that are placed in solvent. You definitely do not want it to be thick because it needs to penetrate throughout the wood. The Minwax Wood Hardener looks thinner than water. Considering the time and mess of making your own, it seems a lot more convenient to just buy the Minwax Wood Hardener. If you already have a supply of acrylic pieces and acetone, you could give it a try.


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## Miller Woodworks (Dec 11, 2013)

Quickstep said:


> What's the ratio of acrylic to acetone?


I just kept tossing pieces of acrylic into the acetone until it stopped readily dissolving. It will keep "dissolving" almost indefinitely, but then just form a goo at the bottom of the container. I'm not a fan of the goo formation and take out only what stays in solution to use. After dissolving it, I decant the fully dissolved solution into another container and add more acetone to the gooey container until there's no more goo, then all goes into the original gallon container I got the acetone in.


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## Bart Leetch (Jan 28, 2012)

I ripped my acrylic into thin strips on the Band-saw & then break the long strips into short lengths before putting it into the acetone for small amounts like to finish pens. It seems to dissolve quicker.


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## Drac (Mar 26, 2014)

I normally send mine out to be processed. I found a guy that does it professionally when I first started knife making and he did such a great job I stuck with him.

Jim


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## john lucas (Sep 18, 2007)

I don't do what you call stabilizing but I do pour on thinned lacquer to harden the fibers of punky woods. It works great. I sat through a demo on Cactus juice and it's very impressive stuff. Penetrates very far. You do need the vacuum set up however. 
System 3 mirror coat is a thin epoxy that gets even thinner as it starts to cure. I've poured that on punky woods and been able to turn them pretty successfully.


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