# Impregnating wood



## tyskkvinna (Mar 23, 2010)

I've been doing some research into impregnating wood with some kind of resin and dye. What I want to do is thoroughly saturate a piece of wood with dye, the stabilising part of it is just a by-product. (Although a very welcome one!)

If you've seen my blog you know I've got a lot of maple… I want to turn a bunch of it into pen blanks. And as a lot of it has just amazing grain and figure… would make for some kickin' interior colouring.

I'm getting a lot of varied information on the internet.. would love to hear directly from anybody who has done it.

I have a few vac pumps and can get another easily if necessary.. not sure what I need. Would ideally like to do more than one piece of wood at a time.

What dyes work best for this? Does it matter?


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## sras (Oct 31, 2009)

I'm not sure if this site will help, but I think you're looking for something like this …

www.woodsure.com


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## Jeff28078 (Aug 27, 2009)

Not sure if this is relevant but from my days in chemical pulping if you heat up the wood with steam (it has to be hotter than boiling water so a pressurized vessel) then add a cold solution of what you want to impregnate with, it'll be pulled into the wood between the fibers. I can envision heating with a pressure cooker then, once it's cooled down enough to open the cooker safely, pour a cold solution over the wood. A pressure cooker is an ideal size for pen blanks.


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## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

Jeff, Would you throw a vacuum on it too?


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## StumpyNubs (Sep 25, 2010)

What a red latter day on Lumberjocks! First Spoontenaous posts a finely carved collection of sperm (below) and now I'm learning about impregnating wood.

I feel dirty…










Fortunately, i always have my "pocket kitten" handy to clear my thoughts…










Ahhhhhhh…. That's better! Not what were we talking about?........


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## darryl (Jul 22, 2006)

I'll be curious to find out what solution works for you Lis. 
I tried playing around some with food coloring and denatured alcohol, but it did not provide a consistant stain job.


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## tyskkvinna (Mar 23, 2010)

Hmm.. I may try that..

I've been kicking around the idea of submerging the blanks into a resin bath and then turning on the vac chamber, but I'm not sure if that will work. Maybe with just a dye and not a resin?


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