Does anyone have experience using this technique (www.northcoastknives.com/northcoast_knives_tutorials_hints_tips3.htm) with balsa wood for fly handles - to try to make balsa wood a little more firm?

Apparently it might be useful for stabilizing knife handle woods (someone on this Forum led me to this site for stabilizing wood at home).

I've made-up some 1/4" balsa into rings, using a circular blade, to make a test fly grip using this method. Will post results when completed. Stan





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2005 10:24PM by Stan Gregory.

The attractiveness of balsa is light weight. If you load it with resin, it looses that feature. Others recently talked about using redwood or cedar. Again very light, but not as soft as cork. Think about that. Just a few layers of Tru-Oil will protect it.

Note I tried just soaking inserts of various woods in a mixture of resins and oils. The bubbles proved a lot of penetration was taking place with no pressures. The results seems very good after drying and finishing/polishing.

Seems to me the key to wood treatment is to prevent moisture absorbsion. Easy to test this. Weigh the dry treated blank. Soak it in water for a few days. Dry it with a cloth. weigh it again. Any increase in weight is water absorbed. A Harvard balance will prove + or - 0.1 gram.

Let us know how the balsa works for you as I am thinking about experimenting with the same thing but only to use the balsa rings under friction tape , cork tape, or cork composite handlebar tape grips. Thought about dyeing the rings using a vaccum sealer as well and then sealing them with true oil or a similar priduct after thoroughly drying the dyed rings.

Derek

Tim,

Soaking the wood just won't do the job, IMO. Pressure differentials, temps & time are required for serious penetration of the wood's cellular structures. The procedure applied to the wood using the MinWax High Performance Wood Hardner is very similar to canning vegestables (temps & pressure differentials to get rid of gases and allow inflow of material during the cooling phase), except it needs to be done outside the house and away from any flame due to the very flammabile solvents in the product.

I've tried the technique on a couple softwood reel seats and it seems to have penetrated the wood completely. I suspect the technique might work fairly well with balsa though it will increase the grip weight a certain percentage.

The overall weight might turn out to be less than the weight of cork of the same length & diameter, and might result in a grip with better appearance than currently available cork. We'll see. Stan



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/19/2005 01:46AM by Stan Gregory.

I have made a few. Nice to work with, not much on grain but that can be accented with tints. I then have coated with thin coat of finish. Coek is soft also, this has no pits.

You can also purchase different densities of balsa from soft to hard. There is no need to cut it into rings unless that is the look you are trying going for. I buy balsa in 3"x4"x48" boards for turning floats. Give nationalbalsa.com a look, if you order give them a call and ask for hard balsa.

Scott

Thanks for the heads up. Did not know it came in a hard.

there is an impregnation process i read about on a bamboo forum. disolve pieces of plexiglass in acetone to make your impreg solution.i takes quite a while to disolve the plexiglass pieces. soak your wood in this for a day or so. a pressure vessel would of course make the process more effective. this adds significant weight to the wood but makes it very tough.

I've experimented with balsa rings cut from 1/4" balsa sheet. I then use the rings like cork rings. When gluing I position the ends of the grain so that no two rings align. The end result is a very sturdy grip that looks awesome once it is stained and finished. I believe this type of setup works much better than trying to make a handle out of solid balsa with the grain running parrallel to the blank. However, unlike a solid piece of balsa, the balsa is much harder to work when rings are cut and used this way. If you don't have a real lathe, it will take for ever to shape the grip with sandpaper, but it can be done.

Kevin

Kevin,
Definately sounds worth trying!! How about posting a pic? Would love to see it. What do you stain and finish it with?? Do you use a hole saw to cut it??


Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Basswood is a bit heavier, not by a terrible amount however, and is quite a bit tougher. Might be a better choice for what you're after.

................

Pictures of balsa on the photo board



[www.rodbuilding.org]

I just thought of some thig Happens so often , think that balsa would make nice arbors ??
Maybe to soft?