Sealer Depth of Penetration

[JBlaze]

After reading Hazmail's posts about removing air and sealing baits using vacuum, I am wondering if anyone knows or has any idea as to how you would be able to check and see just how deep the sealer is penetrating the wood?

Mostly, I am interested in making Balsa wood lures a little more durable than they are when you just seal by dipping or brushing on the sealer.

I think I recently read a post about using thinned epoxy for a sealer and it told how deep it was penetrating the wood. So, how can I find this out?

Thanks John

[rofish]

I have never tried to find the answer to your question, but at the same time I think that if I would try, I would have to add some color to the sealer, then slice the lure blank. Since I make my blanks by hand, I am not willing to make such a sacrifice

I do not know much about epoxies, but I think that if I would have to use one as a penetrating sealer, I would need to thin it to the point that the stuff would not be an epoxy anymore (milk consistency).

[Palmetto Balsa]

After it is sealed you should be able to slice the wood and see how far the sealant made the wood firm. I thought about using pigment added to the sealer but I don't think that would work very well. Because the wood, would act as a filter and stop the pigment from penetrating while the sealer should be able to travel farther into the wood. Does this sound like the correct testing method? (slice it and scratch the wood)

[kelly]

Cant you just put in a peace of square stock in and seal it. Cut a peace off right after to see if it is wet see how much the sealer penetrated the edges. Then after it cures cut it in half and test the wood with water to see what spots the water sucks in.

[JBlaze]

that was to simple but I think that would be the way to go and as RoFish said add some color, perhaps a drop of food coloring maybe the wood wouldn't filter that out