What is stabilisation?
The stabilisation is the process that makes wood (or bone) denser and harder and therefore easier to work. This process also makes materials more resistant to moisture, impact and cracking, so they become more durable over time. Their natural colours last longer too, or are even revived: the woods fade less and the patterns are brought out.
Stabilisation is particularly useful for softwoods and materials with small cracks. Indeed, materials less dense absorb the resin better than harder materials such as ironwood.
Cactus Juice Resin
We use a stabilising resin based on natural cactus juice to stabilise and harden our woods effectively. It is a resin that hardens after being heated in an oven. It alters the natural colour of the wood only very slightly.
How does it work?
To stabilise wood (or bone), you first have to make sure it is dry and clean, then it is placed in a vacuum chamber with the resin. The air is removed from the chamber so that it is replaced by the resin inside the material. Finally the resin hardens as it is heated, then it must be left to cool.
Why stabilise our woods?
At Muzard SARL, we stabilise our woods for two reasons.
The first isaesthetics. Indeed, some woods, such as Karelian birch, are very pale and stabilisation makes it possible to bring out their patterns and revive their colours. The aim is to give them the best possible appearance.
The second is necessity. Some woods are very porous, very weak, with a density too low to be worked properly. We therefore stabilise these woods, such as heat-marked beech or guava, to solidify them and make them denser and therefore easier to work, carve and sand without damaging or even cracking them.
Dyeing materials
Cactus-juice dyeing makes it possible to colour wood or bone. Its colours are lasting and vibrant and can give the materials many looks. It comes in every colour, which lets us offer scales and blanks in original bright colours, solid or even two-tone.
These stabilised and dyed materials are perfect for creations that stand out from the ordinary.
