Stabilising wood?

[Mujician]

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone has any experience of stabilising wood - this is most common for knife handles, however, I wish to use it for a slightly different purpose although the methods will still be the same! Many thanks, Ben

[Adam Savage]

There are a few articles on the net, using the glass jar, wood hardener, and boiling water method. That's the way most private individuals do it. There are specialist stabilizing polymers, but you have to buy in bulk, and it's not cheap, plus you'll need either a pressure pump or a vacuum pump for those. There is mixed success with stabilising timber, so it depends what you want to use the finished product for. Often "stabilising" just refers to stopping rot in it's tracks, and stopping the moisture level changing, which means it won't warp and move any more than it already has.