Hardener

[Tiderunner]

Some time back I bought a hardener that was clear, or close to clear. The label had worn off and all print was gone from the bottle. Anyone know who might sell this type of hardener?

I've since bought a bottle of hardener, I believe its Lurecraft brand that is a paste PVC resin type. Hard to use. Doesn't mix well no matter what I do. Doesn't allow me to make clear baits.

Can't use it for reheats so I can dial in exactly what I want when making recipes.

In short I hate the stuff.

I want my clear one back! Can anyone here help me out?

[alsworms]

2 hours ago, Tiderunner said:

Some time back I bought a hardener that was clear, or close to clear. The label had worn off and all print was gone from the bottle. Anyone know who might sell this type of hardener?

I've since bought a bottle of hardener, I believe its Lurecraft brand that is a paste PVC resin type. Hard to use. Doesn't mix well no matter what I do. Doesn't allow me to make clear baits.

Can't use it for reheats so I can dial in exactly what I want when making recipes.

In short I hate the stuff.

I want my clear one back! Can anyone here help me out?

Not sure about a "clear" hardener, but I know MF makes a liquid that is much easier to work with.  Lure Craft's version is next to impossible to deal with!

[Dink Master]

4 hours ago, Tiderunner said:

Some time back I bought a hardener that was clear, or close to clear. The label had worn off and all print was gone from the bottle. Anyone know who might sell this type of hardener?

I've since bought a bottle of hardener, I believe its Lurecraft brand that is a paste PVC resin type. Hard to use. Doesn't mix well no matter what I do. Doesn't allow me to make clear baits.

Can't use it for reheats so I can dial in exactly what I want when making recipes.

In short I hate the stuff.

I want my clear one back! Can anyone here help me out?

Most Hardeners are white

Most Softeners are clear

Most Heat Stabilizers clear-(brown tint)

Most Worm Oils are clear

What plastic are you using? Why are you adding Hardener?

How clear are your baits without the non clear hardener?

Heat Stabilizers works okay on some plastics for reheats.

[Tiderunner]

10 hours ago, alsworms said:

Not sure about a "clear" hardener, but I know MF makes a liquid that is much easier to work with.  Lure Craft's version is next to impossible to deal with!

Seeing I pretty much only use MF plastisol I'm pretty sure what I was using was MF hardener. The LC I have now is a pain in the keester to work with. I'm with you nearly impossible to work with.

 

8 hours ago, Dink Master said:

Most Hardeners are white                               Most but not all as my OP states.

Most Softeners are clear                                 Yes I know

Most Heat Stabilizers clear-(brown tint)       extremely Light brown maybe even a slight yellow tint

Most Worm Oils are clear                                  Yup. I use a lot mixed with scent  for packaging

What plastic are you using? Why are you adding Hardener? Adding hardener to get as close to the bait I'm trying to duplicate..I'm always tweaking. May even add softener.  I use MF De-gassed Plastic Soft sinking.  I play with my recipe until I get exactly what I want. I test for stretch, I weigh every bait.  I even have a bottle of Clearsol, I bought as an experiment that I cant use for anything unless I add stabilizer and hardener.

And for the short answer I use hardener because I feel the baits are too soft. Can't think of any other reason.

How clear are your baits without the non clear hardener?    Very clear. Think Yamo 197

Heat Stabilizers works okay on some plastics for reheats. It works pretty darn good seeing the stabilizer cooks off after a few reheats A couple tiny drops after about 3 reheats.

I ordered my last quart of hardener and stabilizer 3 years ago, so I use very little of the stuff.  Been pouring around 30 years. I know the process, can't remember what brand I last ordered.I've tried other brands of plastic. Shipping brings the total price. up to around that of MF. So I stick with that. When I ordered lure craft I had ordered beads or hooks or something. so I added hardener to the order.

[alsworms]

8 hours ago, Tiderunner said:

Seeing I pretty much only use MF plastisol I'm pretty sure what I was using was MF hardener. The LC I have now is a pain in the keester to work with. I'm with you nearly impossible to work with.

 

I ordered my last quart of hardener and stabilizer 3 years ago, so I use very little of the stuff.  Been pouring around 30 years. I know the process, can't remember what brand I last ordered.I've tried other brands of plastic. Shipping brings the total price. up to around that of MF. So I stick with that. When I ordered lure craft I had ordered beads or hooks or something. so I added hardener to the order.

It's been awhile for me too and I actually had to think about the color of the hardener.  Yup......white but liquid.  That should work for you.  Good luck!

[Dink Master]

To answer your question:  I do not know who makes a clear Hardener.

I was only trying to help. I also have bottles that have all the print missing, so I do not know what it is or what brand it is.

I did not know how experience you are, so I was just pointing out that most Hardeners are white.

I did not think that you did know how hardener works. I also been pouring for over 30 years and prefer M-F Plastic.

I looked a M-F web site they have Sinking Softener but I did not see Hardener for Soft Sinking Plastic.

https://www.pouryourownworms.com/Sinking-Softener_c15.htm

I have never used M-F Soft Sinking Plastic.

I would get some M-F Medium Sinking Plastic and some Sinking Softener and tweak your plastic down (softer)

Good Luck. Let us know where you find the Clear Hardener.

 

[Tiderunner]

On 12/30/2020 at 6:35 PM, Dink Master said:

To answer your question:  I do not know who makes a clear Hardener.

I was only trying to help. I also have bottles that have all the print missing, so I do not know what it is or what brand it is.

No worries. I also have bottle of pigment with no names. So from time to time I make small runs of baits to see what it is, and then sharpie the name on the bottle. Think greens, purples. All like colors but different.

And I was wrong on one account. I have been using medium plastic. Because I fish deep water (50+), and to match the weights of the original, I also use a lot of salt or glass beads. so sometimes the baits will be too soft, so add hardener, then too stiff, so add softener. We all do it.

However, I'm experimenting with core shot baits without actually buying new molds, I was going through my plastics, and found a bottle of Medium sinking, Firm Extra stretch, by MF. So I used that. I really like the stuff! A tad too firm, so If I switch over to that completely, and just add softener I may have what I want.

 

For my non-coreshot baits I'd still use soft plastic. As I like the baits really floppy and soft. Especially because I do a lot of Neko rigs, and wacky specialty baits. The firm isn't what I'd want.

[wallyc14]

On 12/29/2020 at 1:33 PM, Tiderunner said:

Some time back I bought a hardener that was clear, or close to clear. The label had worn off and all print was gone from the bottle. Anyone know who might sell this type of hardener?

I've since bought a bottle of hardener, I believe its Lurecraft brand that is a paste PVC resin type. Hard to use. Doesn't mix well no matter what I do. Doesn't allow me to make clear baits.

Can't use it for reheats so I can dial in exactly what I want when making recipes.

In short I hate the stuff.

I want my clear one back! Can anyone here help me out?

I have never seen a clear hardner. All I’ve seen is white. I’ve come across 2 different types or hardner. One being like what m and f sells which I believe is a blended down hardner mixed with plastisol and stabilizer to be easy to mix with plastisol. IMHO a quick method to change the hardness. The other I have seen is ”paste” type.It is a pia to work with. It is potent though. From all the years of playing with it I learned if I use the paste I have to add heat stabilizer or it scorches will out doubt. A 1/2 teaspoon in 4 oz of plastic with 3 or 4 drops of stabilizer will change medium plastic quite a bit.Sometime I will pre-mix a quart of plastic with a certain amount of Hardner depending on what kind of bait on making.

 

[wallyc14]

Oh yeah! The paste when mixing you have to stir the crap out of it. Cheers!

[Tiderunner]

Reading my last years Do-It catalog, they show a " Crystal Clear" hardener. Gonna drop them a line and see if theirs is truly crystal clear, or if that's just their brand name.

[Les Young]

 We're talking about mostly 4, 6 or 8 ounce batches here but, i don't use hardner or softener. If i want a harder mix i just add  hard to soft   or medium  & if i want it  softer i just add soft to medium or hard.   Doing it like this the only thing that changes is firmness because my colors, amount of glitter, highlights  etc. stay exactly the same & so do the amount of plastic used in each shot. I use heat stabilizer  on old remelts  that i store in coffee cans. Working in small batches like i do  makes it easy to tweak them any way i  want  & still be pretty consistent.  Sometimes i'll have enough of a certain firmness of plastic that i don't have to order it & just order the  medium that i use way more of anyway.

[Tiderunner]

On 1/8/2021 at 8:13 AM, Les Young said:

 We're talking about mostly 4, 6 or 8 ounce batches here

I'm the same. But I am way fussy, and I'm always tweaking. I may skip the soft sinking, and switch to a medium sinking, and just use the softener to adjust wiggle and texture after adding salt, glass beads,etc.

On remelts of dark colors, no stabilizer, just a tiny bit on lighter colors, and none on clearish baits. I just make small batches so I don't have to worry about yellowing.

On 12/30/2020 at 6:35 PM, Dink Master said:

To answer your question:  I do not know who makes a clear Hardener.

I was only trying to help. I also have bottles that have all the print missing, so I do not know what it is or what brand it is.

I did not know how experience you are, so I was just pointing out that most Hardeners are white.

I did not think that you did know how hardener works. I also been pouring for over 30 years and prefer M-F Plastic.

I looked a M-F web site they have Sinking Softener but I did not see Hardener for Soft Sinking Plastic.

https://www.pouryourownworms.com/Sinking-Softener_c15.htm

I have never used M-F Soft Sinking Plastic.

I would get some M-F Medium Sinking Plastic and some Sinking Softener and tweak your plastic down (softer)

Good Luck. Let us know where you find the Clear Hardener.

 

That's quite the bottle assortment! I'm adding some more shelving to keep mine under control. I've got to figure out how to fix the disappearing color name on the pigment bottles.

[Dink Master]

Believe me I have a lot more then that.

Lurecraft, Lureworks, Bear's, Dead On, & Bait Plastics.

In the picture I wanted to show you the Soft/Medium & the Medium/Saltwater blend(see Les Young's post  above)

I also tweak with softener & hardeners. The Lurecraft bottle on the right might be softener?

I looked at the Do-It web site the " Crystal Clear" hardener looks white to me. Did you find out anything from them?

[Les Young]

I think i will try either  some   of  the floatant materia or a high float plastic ,for shakey head worms, ned rig baits & baby brush hogs.

[mark poulson]

On 1/10/2021 at 4:23 PM, Les Young said:

I think i will try either  some   of  the floatant materia or a high float plastic ,for shakey head worms, ned rig baits & baby brush hogs.

Please report back on your results.

[Les Young]

I will when i do Mark, but will be a little while before i do. I'm spending money on the boat right now.

[Tiderunner]

On 1/10/2021 at 7:23 PM, Les Young said:

I think i will try either  some   of  the floatant materia or a high float plastic

I make a lot of floating baits using the floaty bubble stuff. I'm experimenting with making floating, or neutral

buoyancy claws for my crayfish

11 minutes ago, Les Young said:

I will when i do Mark, but will be a little while before i do. I'm spending money on the boat right now.

LOL...you do know what boat means don't you? Bust Out Another Thousand

Spending money on the boat! That's funny! You have to do that over the life of the boat. A hole in the ocean into which you pour lots of money. The two happiest days in a boat owners life the day he buys it and the day he sells it...And I'm sure the list goes on.

I have a 24' walkaround sitting in my driveway that the engine needs to come out of. I/O  Chevy 5.7 Overbuilt to nearly 350HP. Oil pan rotted out. As long as the engine is out, replace the starter, the exhaust and shift bellows, the shift cable.

I keep thinking my second happiest day is coming!

[Les Young]

Oh believe me i know what b o a t stands for.

[Les Young]

On 1/9/2021 at 9:43 PM, Tiderunner said:

 I'm adding some more shelving to keep mine under control. I've got to figure out how to fix the disappearing color name on the pigment bottles.

I added shelving & it runs wall to wall on a 28x32 garage.  As far as color names go i just write name , color & number on them with a permanent marker like  say lureworks green pumpkin 109 or green pumpkin  sp 156. I've done this to several pint bottles & it's still on there & you could  always freshen it up every now & then if you had to. 

[robalo01]

Generally, Hardener is just plastisol minus (or greatly reduced) plastisizers and a little more stabilizer. It is white because the PVC resin has still not been melted. It should turn transluscent (just like plastisol) once heated.  You can add it before hating or afete it is hot. I find it easier to mix when added to hot plastisol. It is also possible to add powdered PCV directly to plastisol to make it harder if you can get your hands on it. You have to be careful not throw off the balance. My 2C.

[mark poulson]

1 hour ago, robalo01 said:

Generally, Hardener is just plastisol minus (or greatly reduced) plastisizers and a little more stabilizer. It is white because the PVC resin has still not been melted. It should turn transluscent (just like plastisol) once heated.  You can add it before hating or afete it is hot. I find it easier to mix when added to hot plastisol. It is also possible to add powdered PCV directly to plastisol to make it harder if you can get your hands on it. You have to be careful not throw off the balance. My 2C.

I have found that adding hardener to hot plastisol gives my lumps of unmixed hardener.  I always add it to some uncooked plastisol, and mix it thoroughly, before I heat it, or add it to already hot plastisol.

[Bass-Boys]

On 1/15/2021 at 10:45 PM, mark poulson said:

I have found that adding hardener to hot plastisol gives my lumps of unmixed hardener.  I always add it to some uncooked plastisol, and mix it thoroughly, before I heat it, or add it to already hot plastisol.

agree.