Home made wood hardener.

Rosin is pine resin after turpentine is removed. So you're basically just painting pine resin on your deadwood. This may be enough to preserve your wood, but whether I would call it a wood hardener or not, I'm not sure. There are tons of after-market wood hardeners on the market depending on what you are trying to do. For extremely rotted or degraded wood that you are trying to stabilize, you will probably get your best results from a two-part thin epoxy - which is designed to penetrate wood fibers before curing, and which you can use with dirty/damp wood. Note however that most epoxies (like polyurethanes and many other products) are not UV stable. Make sure whatever you use is waterproof and designed for exposure to the sun. Also note - if you use wood hardener on visible deadwood you may change the appearance/nature of the deadwood. Make sure you test first (on a dead branch snapped off a tree or something similar) to see if the results are what you are looking for.
 
Bonsai Nut said:
Rosin is pine resin after turpentine is removed. So you're basically just painting pine resin on your deadwood. This may be enough to preserve your wood, but whether I would call it a wood hardener or not, I'm not sure. There are tons of after-market wood hardeners on the market depending on what you are trying to do. For extremely rotted or degraded wood that you are trying to stabilize, you will probably get your best results from a two-part thin epoxy - which is designed to penetrate wood fibers before curing, and which you can use with dirty/damp wood. Note however that most epoxies (like polyurethanes and many other products) are not UV stable. Make sure whatever you use is waterproof and designed for exposure to the sun. Also note - if you use wood hardener on visible deadwood you may change the appearance/nature of the deadwood. Make sure you test first (on a dead branch snapped off a tree or something similar) to see if the results are what you are looking for.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't call this a hardener, but I think it preserves the wood to some extent. The alcohol will help the rosin penetrate the wood. In my experience, it does not go in very far, only 2-3 mm, but that is good enough. What is good for me is that it goes into the cracks of the dried wood and fills the cracks after a few applications. I plan to use it this spring on my BCs carving to preserve the wood while waiting for the tree to heal. The BC carvings I do are usually too big to apply the conduit seal as cut paste. I've used the tree wound seal in the past on the BC carving. Perhaps this is a better alternative. I'll find out soon enough.

I also plan to use it on the carvings of my Mayhaws as well.
 
Bonsai Nut said:
you will probably get your best results from a two-part thin epoxy - which is designed to penetrate wood fibers before curing
Click to expand...
This... or another thing that I have used to stabilize wood for sanding/shaping is CA glue. I'm a fan of Starbond glues, the first one below is a workhorse. I use it for spalted woods. It is also waterproof and used for items that will be subject to constant water contact, and even submerged items.


The ones below are also great for this purpose. But not as strong as the one above. One caveat is that the one above is a medium thickness, which depending on the wood may not penetrate as well as the thin ones below. Note that almost any epoxy, thin included, will be thicker than the KEG 500.

 
Maiden69 said:
This... or another thing that I have used to stabilize wood for sanding/shaping is CA glue. I'm a fan of Starbond glues, the first one below is a workhorse. I use it for spalted woods. It is also waterproof and used for items that will be subject to constant water contact, and even submerged items.


The ones below are also great for this purpose. But not as strong as the one above. One caveat is that the one above is a medium thickness, which depending on the wood may not penetrate as well as the thin ones below. Note that almost any epoxy, thin included, will be thicker than the KEG 500.

Click to expand...
That's too costly for my BCs :D
I still have a couple gallons of IPA left over from Covid days. $25 bucks for 2 lbs of raw rosin and I can treat 100 BCs. I know the protection won't last long but 2 years should be enough for the scar to close on most my chops.
 
Cajunrider said:
That's too costly for my BCs :D
I still have a couple gallons of IPA left over from Covid days. $25 bucks for 2 lbs of raw rosin and I can treat 100 BCs. I know the protection won't last long but 2 years should be enough for the scar to close on most my chops.
Click to expand...
CA is just superglue, you can find it for cheaper. Used it when building balsa RC airplanes.
Perhaps not as cheap as your rosin, but the thin stuff spreads out very, well, thin, and makes a nice layer.
 
Lime sulfur will get you more than pine rosin. Wood hardeners, as said, have epoxy that dries and hardens in wood fiber, Wood hardeners are used in vacuum chambers to stabilize wood for use in implements, like custom knife handles Rosin is mostly useless unless you're a violinist
 
For sure, I agree...the wrong terminology was used here.
This is not a wood hardener. It is a wood preserver.
 
That would be useful for healing tree canker and cut wounds, because you can mix things in with it and it will stay on a few months.
 
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