New Material

[John Esberg]

Hello Everyone!

At a woodworking store yesterday while I was waiting in line, I came across an article on impregnated wood. In a special process, acrylic is forced into dried wood. It makes the wood up to 4 times harder and eliminated bowing/warping due to humidity changes.

You can see examples at http://www.woodsure.com

I know for a fact that woodworkers have it laser engraved.

Does anyone have experience in laser cutting the material. If so, how did it go?

Looking forward to your reply,

DAK

[Garry McKinney]

John,
It looks interesting, but extreamly expensive. From $50 to over $200 a board foot is a bit salty in my opinion. I guess it would all depend upon the customer but at those prices for unfinished material I don't think it would be something I would want any learning curve on.
I think if I was looking at it I would get the sample packs and run them to see how well it would work.

I could see some impressive items coming from it , but I could see a lot of time needed to master the right process for it as well.

Garry

[Mike Null]

That material is actually quite old. In its original form it was used for kitchen knife handles with the idea that combined with a stainless blade they could be put into the dishwasher. (dishwashers weren't so common then) The material went under several names; one I recall was pakkawood. That was 50 years ago.

It's laserable but I don't know about cutting.

[John Esberg]

Granted its not a new material, its new to me. It certainly a very exciting prospect for the kind of work I do. My customers are willing to pay top dollar for exotic materials. Not to mention, I like having the nitch that none else is using.

DAK

[James Leonard]

I use this for an inlay material. It is also great for turners (pens especially). These folks have better prices and may actually be the ones doing the work here. They also have blocks of dyed stabilized wood for sale if you just want to play with this material.

http://www.stabilizedwood.com/

-James Leonard