Salvaging punky wood?

[John Fricke]

Does anyone have any proven methods for salvaging punky wood to make it usable for turning? I was thinking that maybe a person could soak the blank in a glue/water solution for a day or two. Then insert the piece in a vacuum bag, attach to the vacuum pump and really draw the solution deep into the pores of the wood. Anybody tried this or a different method that works? I have that big burl with some really nice figure and some spalting but it is punkier than I thought. Hate to use it to heat the shop.

[Jason Solodow]

Hey John-

If you have a Costco near you, I've found that they're liquid laundry detergent makes a pretty decent stabilizer. Mix it 50/50 and soak the blank for 12 hours and turn. I had about a half dozen spalted maple blanks that were really soft, soaked them in the solution, rough turned them down to an inch thick and air dryed for awhile. I'm finish turning them now and I've only run into a couple of small spots that are still punky, I just give them a squirt of water thin CA glue and keep going.

I like your idea of using the vacuum pump, never thought of that before.. Let me know if it works!

[David Walser]

John,

The thinned down glue approach works. So, too, does MinWax's Wood Hardener. Of the two, I prefer Minwax's Wood Hardener over the thinned down glue. Wood hardener seems to penetrate better.

Here's a link: http://www.minwax.com/products/wood_maintenance_and_repair/high_performance_wood_hardener.html

[Brian Brown]

Minwax wood hardener works (I soak the blank overnight), and is more economical thn CA glue, but it takes a long time to dry, and it clogs sand paper terribly.

[David Walser]

...[MinWax Wood Hardener] clogs sand paper terribly.True. (The same thing applies to the thinned glue approach.) However, I've had good success wet sanding wood treated with Wood Hardener. That seems keep the sandpaper from clogging as quickly. I say "seems" because I've not done any kind of side-by-side test.

[David Christopher]

John, I had the same problem a while back and I thinned deft sanding sealer about 50% (laquer thiner ) and soaked over night and it worked great