Stabilizing spalted wood


Guillaume Breton

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Hello there, my 1st post ! im so excited !

My name is Guillaume. I'm a bran new WW in Québec, still learning in school at the moment.

I recently had the opportunity to "recycle" a lot of BIG 8 foot long trunks of maple, red oak, and ash.

Trees that had been cut last year on the university campus here where i worked this summer.

i offered to mill the lumber and recycle it so the students at the school i am at would have nice lumber to work and lear with. Everybody win situation. Was also able to demonstrate the pcocess of milling with a portable mill.

anyway, some of these plank are amaaaaaaaaaazing. I have some spalted maple, some amazing red oak planks also.

================

my question is. I know the drying process will stop the spalting from spreading more. but, on some of the more heavily spalted planks, the spalting is at a point where the wood started to lose its strenght.

i would LOVE to save these planks since they have amazing patterns and colors. I have been trying to find information on how to stabilise wood myself without sending them to a place where they do that. So far, i've came across some products like the minwax wood hardener.

Anyone would have tips for me to be able to save these amazing planks ? i would like to make a table top with some of them, so you know the kind of projets i'm aiming at.

the minwax hardener comes into 500ml cans and is 15$ bucks each that would cost me a fortune, but if it works... i might do it.

any information would be appreciated. is it to much to ask to that kind of stabilization ? is so, do you guys know any place in canada (quebec hopefully) where they do stabilise whole planks like that ?

thank you very much. I really hope i can find a way to put that wood to good use.

Guillaume

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amazing ! looking it up right now !

edit: wrote to them and asked if their products are available in canada.

the only one i can find here is the minwax wood hardener. which only comes in pint. If i have to'ill use a lot of these pint but i'd rather buy something in gallons.

anyone has any experience with the minwax wood hardener ?

MERCI !

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Charles Neil used Enduro-Var from General Finishes to stabilize the punky parts of the spalted wood when I was helping him out in Tucson months ago. The spalted Maple sample board had very soft spalted areas. After a heavy application of Enduro-Var (which dries quickly), the spalted areas are hardened enough to mill, turn, etc.

CPES doesn't really harden; things stay very pliable. I wouldn't use it in this application. The gases from it will pickle your brain in an instant, too, so stick with water-based Enduro-Var.

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