Hybrid & stabilised confusion!
Its come to my attention that people seem to be getting mixed up between a hybrid blank and stabilised wood, and in some cases even selling a hybrid blank as a stabilised blank.
What is a hybrid blank?
In general terms a hybrid blank is a resin blank with something (usually burr wood) embedded within it.
like this example that I have made
what is stabilising
stabilising is a way to make soft or punky woods hard, this is done under vacuum where a special resin is drawn in and then after the vacuum process is over it is heat cured essentially making a piece of wood which will no longer gain or loose moisture.
Some woods cannot be stabilised as they are already very dense and the resin under vacuum simply does not penetrate.
and just to confuse matters more you can have a hybrid blank which features a piece of wood which has been stabilised.
In summary
just like casting with resin stabilising wood is a very labour intensive process and costly when done correctly, unfortunately there are some ways to cut corners and make it look like the wood is stabilised when actually its not!! so beware of what you are buying and specially how it has been made.
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