Grain orientation on stabilized woods!

[Glenn Lefley]

I noticed a question on grain orientation of wood. To a carpenter like me it is a no brainer. A handle with grain going along the handle is strong, with one going against the grain can be broken in your hands. Now when wood is stabilized does the resin, I’ll say, cactus juice, which I use. There are all sorts of brands out there. Does the resin make it strong enough to not worry about grain orientation when one makes handles for ice cream scoops etc. I see some woods are beautiful when cross cut. Has anyone experimented with a stabilized cross cut blank with a handle before. Or is it doomed for trouble?

 

[Brian Gustin]

It would rather depend on the properties of the specific resin - there are a lot of them (as well as Epoxies, which are similar to Resins) as well as how accurately the parts are measured and mixed, the curing environment, speed and time, etc. there are plenty of purely resin or epoxy handles out there that seem to have no problems holding up, so I don't see any reason they could not hold up while holding/displaying an end grain handle.. Unless of course, the resin does not fully encase the handle (I'd be assuming a clear epoxy or resin is used totally enveloping the wood)

 

[robo hippy]

Well, for the resin to reinforce the wood to a point where side grain would be as strong as end grain, it would have to cure with fiber running through the wood in the side grain orientation. Don't think it can do that....

robo hippy

 

[hockenbery]

If you can always Glue a dowel in a blind hole a bit less than the length on the handle.
also, metal rod added as a long tang to the item being handle.

the brass inserts in pen making allow face grain pens.
all sorts of soft materials cast in resin are Used effectively in pens. Pine cones are one exampl.
could easily put a pine cone handle on a letter opener.

one thing to keep in mind it is hard to get crisp details in face grain handle