Do some better pieces of wood have hardley if any whiskering to do?

I have a black walnut stock Im ready to seal. I go to whisker it and dont get any whiskers.

I 220 'd it . wet towel wiped it down good,blew the grain out with compressed air,dry ,did a 320 go over. Wet toweled it again and blew it again with air,dry.

Now im looking for whiskers and those little wood flaps that stick up...

Hmmm ... no whiskers . pretty,slick, bare and clean , nothing is raiseing up. Ok good to go....

Still checking my eye sight.....

This is a nicer piece of wood than ive done before.

black walnut especially seems to very considerably in density....and of course hardness.....I think some was grown of river bottom lands and others was grown more slowly on less damp terrain.....but it seems that the denser the wood...the less the whiskers.

I've used some bastogne lately and it seems to have very little whiskering.

GSP7,

Sounds like you've got the basics covered with the sandpaper, etc. and yes, some wood appears to have less whiskers than other.

Instead of just the compressed air I'd do the wet, (read, a fairly wet washcloth) but instead of just the compressed air hit it with a good going over from of source of HOT air from a high voltage hair dryer or an industrial grade dryer.

Cheers,

Gerry

GSP7,

Sorry got in front of myself and didn't express my thought well.....

You may consider that you are driving the water out of the wood pores with the compressed air, therefore there is nothing left to raise the grain of the wood with when you dry it.

Sand, wet, and THEN directly blast it with HOT air.

Cheers,

Gerry

Or you could do what I saw Al Beisen do one time. Took a wet sponge and soaked the stock. Then grabbed up his trusty welding torch, fired it up, and played the flame over the wood. Quickly I might add too.

Rubbing alky seems to work... but it dries the oils out of the stock...

jeffe

Maybe sacrilige guys, but I have never whiskered a stock; Could never figger out why it was necessary.3

I forgot to say that I used one of those electic bathroom type heaters to dry the wet stock, I used the compressed air to blow sand dust out of the grain.

GPS7,

Based on what you are relating - You're good to go.....if you are wetting and drying right away, then you've probably got a good piece of wood that requires less whiskering.....cool, then let's get on with the stock sealing.

Cheers,

Gerry

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jim Kobe:
Maybe sacrilige guys, but I have never whiskered a stock; Could never figger out why it was necessary.3

---

I figured out why it was necessary when 6 months after I had finished the stock without whiskering the things started popping up through my oil finish...........DJ

The method I now use is to boil some water on the stove. I then turn off the heat and use paper towels to wet the stock. i get it pretty wet and let it sit for a minute or two. I then use a hair dryer turned on high and dry the stock. I do this once fo reach grit and then after 600 I ususlaly do it 3 times. After the last whiskering, i don't sand. I seal the wood with several coats and then I sand it down.

THis is just the way I have come up with that works best for me. I used to use denatured alcohol, cold water, a propane torch, and other things, but this has produced the most consistent results for me. I found that without adding pretty good heat, the whickering did not pop up too much. Hot water helps it even more.

I've been experimenting with a clear epoxy with a viscosity close to water. It penetrates wood very deeply, seals completely and since it is 100% solids it cannot cause a whisker (water can't penetrate a fiber already filled with cured epoxy). The stuff goes in the wood and doesn't build up so you can go over it with standard oil based stock finishes. I think it will also end whisker/fuzz problems associated eith checkering. Anyone else gone down this road before I try to re-invent the wheel?

You can't make the wood totally waterproof, meaning it will definitely be subject to whiskers popping up when it gets wet and then dries. I have run extensive tests on this. Water will travel in and out of wood that has been totally sealed with epoxy and had epoxy built up on top of the wood as well. These tests were conducted by taking a stock that was built form a blank, finished with acraglas and had some oil on top for looks. It wa sput in my damp box with no water and the heat turned up. It dried out enough to shrink 3/32 in from the edge of a checkered but plate in one point. Well, this was on the second consecutive baking session, when I forgot the stock was in the damp box. You can then slop water on the stock to rapidly increase the moisture content, and watch the wood move and whisker. Very interesting tests I ran on that stock.

In case you are wondering, this was a total cock up on my part! THank god it was one of my own stocks, which was most of the problem. I was working on it occasionally and not really paying attention. It was scandelous how long it toom me to fix that stock. But I did get firsthand knowledge of how much water can move through epoxy sealed and finsihed wood. I used to dry wood every day for a living, but this was my first test on a stock with acraglas finish.

You would think you would feel doubly stupid the second time you did the same cock up to the same stock, but in my case I found that my feelings of stupidity went up exponentially.

Thanks for that information, Marc. I'll try to duplicate that on a coupon and see what happens. This product was originally designed to be applied to the ends of rebar used in interstate highway construction to stop rusting and subsequent spauling on the edges. On a newly poured slab it will migrate 12"-18" up the rebar (inside the pour between the rebar and the bonded concrete) and I am hoping that it behaves differently than standard epoxies that are heated or otherwise thinned to improve flow. When you brush some on one side of a 2" cube of wood it will migrate and penetrate all six sides before it sets up in about 5 hours. Cure is at least 8 hour to overnight. It has a 4 hour pot life in a 5 gallon quantity which is exceptionally long for an endothermic product like epoxy. It absolutely will not build up to make a final finish unless one were to apply a dozen coats or more. I'll get back to this post after I run your "uh-oh" test

Harry,
wonder what happens if you put that on a wet stock??? think it will drive the water out???

sounds like a cool thing, in any event, to "after" penetrate the wood, as if it was like a lam... epoxy in a wood matrix...

like LOVE exotic materials.. especially if it still looks and handles like wood...

wonder if it could add weight to a heavy stock, rather than adding lead/merctubes, and make it harder?

jeffe

Tiggergate , whats this concrete/metal sealer called . Whats the brand and name of it? Im in the concrete business . Like to check it out.

Jeffe, I don't think it can drive water out. It probably would seal it in if anything. A gallon weighs slightly less than a gallon of water. It doesn't penetrate nearly that deep on wood; depends on the density and fiber structure. We put some on a block of mesquite about 2 x 2 on a saturday and watched for about an hour, were impressed with how it spread and penetrated about 150% more surface area. When Huntingcat looked at it the next day it had completely encapsulated the block. Point being, you can't do a defined area. Its all or nothing. The area that is penetrated should be hard as hell but we're talking some thousandths to hundreths, not tenths of inches of penetration (accept maybe on end grain). But then, I haven't started specific attempts to maximize penetration, either. I'm sure a pressure pot would dramatically increase that.
After it cures it looks just like an "in the wood" finish but no more or less gloss than the prepared surface had before. I haven't had time to try successive coats yets nor sand it in to fill pores but with the extended pot life that should work fine.
GSP7, when I figure out the email around here I'll send you a little data. If this continues to work I may try to bring this to market through Brownell's or something so I am gonna be little careful about broadcasting the name.
I think it has been superceded in that roll by better processes. Today its principal market is as a penetrating primer to encapsulate rust and scale where sandblasing simply isn't feasible. Inside metal sheds, older factory buildings where beams need to be sealed before painting, that sort of thing, It is only available through it's industrial coating outlet of its manufacturer and the smallest kit is one gallon which, best I can tell would seal about 75-100 stocks.
Next step is to send some samples out to a small selection of interesed professional stockers for an evaluation. I think there are two potential benefits: first is a stock less prone to denting from handling and second is the improved properties for checkering. That assumes it doesn't cause clogging or premature dulling of the cutters. We'll see.

TT,
I sent you a pm.... Can send you some stock "drops, crops, and ends"....

or hell, meet you half way today...


jeffe

I sent you and GSP7 PMs right after my post. Did you get them?