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stablizing the unstable

I was in a local lumber store yesterday and saw a product from Minwax called Wood Hardener. Said it would penetrate and harden woods. Anyone ever tried this product?

Wilford
 
Wilford Bickel said:
I was in a local lumber store yesterday and saw a product from Minwax called Wood Hardener. Said it would penetrate and harden woods. Anyone ever tried this product?

Wilford
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I tried it on some spalted pen blanks. My results were less than spectacular. It didn't leave enough resin behind to really do the job. However it did help some. The problem may have been in my technique. I was just winging it. I soaked the blanks which already had the center hole drilled for 3 days in the hardener and then let them dry. It does say on the can that sometimes several applications are needed. I still have some left and may try soaking blanks and drying them and then repeating the process several times. I did use it on a door threshold that was getting punky. I used about 4 coats on that. I could see the improvement by adding extra coats. That was what I bought it for and it worked well for that.
 
Steve Worcester said:
That is interesting. Please understand that the rules of flamability and boiling temps change dramatically under vacuum.
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One of my initial thoughts was to make sure that ventilation is adequate. Not sure I'd want to attempt this in my basement. Outdoors or garage may be a better place for that.
 
TEK said:
I tried it on some spalted pen blanks. My results were less than spectacular. It didn't leave enough resin behind to really do the job. However it did help some. The problem may have been in my technique. I was just winging it. I soaked the blanks which already had the center hole drilled for 3 days in the hardener and then let them dry. It does say on the can that sometimes several applications are needed. I still have some left and may try soaking blanks and drying them and then repeating the process several times. I did use it on a door threshold that was getting punky. I used about 4 coats on that. I could see the improvement by adding extra coats. That was what I bought it for and it worked well for that.
Click to expand...

I have not tried that product but I have tried a product called Polycryl ( http://www.woodnshop.com/PENTACRYL.htm ). I have seen the Minwax product and wonder how it differs from Polycryl. Bondo also has a similar product, I am told.

My experience with Polycryl is similar to TEK's. It seems to work if you soak for a long enough time and reapply several times. I have only used it once or twice and have never been totally successful.
 
I have tried a bunch of the different home stabilizing methods discussed and a few of my own.. LOL... I have used vacuum and just soaking... none of them do the job that sending the blanks to a reputable stabilizing company does... even predrilling the blanks so that the solutions enter from both the outside and inside do not work as well...
I have been sending my blanks to http://www.rrpwhite.com and have gotten fantastic service.... Before I sent my first ones to them I called and got more info on stabilizing than I needed, but I knew what to expect... and the final product definately exceeded my expectations..
 
Glenn said:
One of my initial thoughts was to make sure that ventilation is adequate. Not sure I'd want to attempt this in my basement. Outdoors or garage may be a better place for that.
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Outdoors is always better, but the bigger issue is that the flashpoint lowers for anything in a vacuum. It is a real cool idea, but I am phobic about those sort of things.
 
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