makezine.com: Minwax High Performance Wood Hardener

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Minwax High Performance Wood Hardener

by Stefan Jones

As seen in MAKE 02 Toolbox

Type(s): Household Product, Raw Material, Tip
Tags: wood hardener experiment

$16 (US, estimated) Buy from amazon.com

Tool photo.

This is as much an invitation to experiment as
a review.

Minwax Wood Hardener is an obnoxious-smelling, toxic, flammable, watery-thin fluid used to treat weathered or rotten window frames and door sills. It's essentially a deep-penetrating liquid plastic. It binds together wood fibers, replacing the natural lignin "glue."

It works as advertised, but I, and others in the rocket-nerd community, have found some additional applications. When applied to fresh, new wood, it creates a hard, dent-resistant,
water-resistant surface that (when thoroughly dry) sands very nicely. It also seals the wood grain, meaning you'll need less paint or stain when finishing porous wood.

Cardboard and cardstock soaked in the stuff become hard, rigid, and water resistant; the
resulting material resembles phenolic plastic and can be sanded and machined with power tools.

Some hints: Never work with this stuff indoors! The solvent in Minwax Wood Hardener is vile stuff. Use a disposable brush, containers you don't mind throwing away, and wash your hands afterwards.

Porous woods expand a bit with Wood Hardener. Treating only one side of a piece of wood may cause it to warp.

Initial sanding of treated pieces may be difficult because Minwax strengthens the wood's surface "fuzz." After an initial smoothing, however, you'll have a surface that can be wet-sanded to a high polish.

In home improvement stores and on amazon.

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Thanks, Noah. I didn't realize there was an epoxy thin enough for this sort of work!
Posted by sej@aol.com on August 09, 2006 at 15:13:30 Pacific Time

Epoxy is the way to go
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This stuff is junk. I've used it.
You want a two part epoxy wood restoration product. RotDoctor, Liquid Wood, and WestMarine sell two-part epoxy dry rot repair products. These are solvent thined, so you need ventilation. These operate similar to the MinWax product in that they are very thin and penetrate very deep. The difference is strength. The epoxy based products are much stronger; have a much higher surface hardness; and are more resistant to future dry rot. They paint ice breakers with epoxy. I have used the RotDoctor product to repair the window frames in my 1906 Edwardian and to seal the fuel tank on my motorcycle.

Posted by Noah on July 12, 2006 at 08:48:22 Pacific Time