Birch Sealing Test -- Input Please

[Eric Roach]

I'm interested in seeing what the tests show. I did a cost breakdown of these 4 sealers and several others -- the sealer I've been using is one of the most expensive, and I thought it dried the fastest but that didn't prove to be the case when I objectively tested it against the other 3.

After sealing, I dip-prime my through-wired plugs with 50% Cover Stain / 50% Naphtha to get a coat of primer on the surface of the through hole, belly hook holes and belly weight voids. If the belly weight voids are deep enough to reach the through hole, I'll dip-prime again after the weights are added and epoxied.

[numbskull]

My understanding is that there are respiratory and health issues with low viscosity sealing epoxies and xylene. True sealing using them requires about 4 coats from the technical literature and online discussions I reviewed several years back (there is a big argument on line about this somewhere on a boat building site between a manufacturer of sealing epoxy and an epoxy chemical engineer). When we seal plugs we do not completely stop water absorption, just reduce it some. The epoxies do harden the plug some, but this is a hobby and wooden plugs have existed and caught fish for decades without perfect sealing. If you are using xylene routinely in plug building I think you are unnecessarily risking your health. Hell, I've had swimming plugs that fished better when waterlogged and have actually increased the amount I weight plugs now because of it.