Sealing wood from water

[Matthew N. Masail]

I'm in the process of building a sharpening station and It's time to make the water stone holders. I'd like to use pine to save other wood (which I don't have much of) for real stuff, but I don't want it to rot and go gray.
I was thinking of using 3-4 coats of CA glue, but I don't know if that will do the trick. what do you suggest I do?

P.S
I found a 46 grit white wheel and single point diamond dresser here in Israel, it just took a few phone calls.

[Bill White]

One of the FEW time I would suggest poly. Even an epoxy might work.
Shalom, Matt.
Bill

[Jonathan McCullough]

A cheap cutting board from ikea would do the trick.

[Matthew N. Masail]

I would really like to use the pine, I just think I'll enjoy the presence of real wood more. CA won't work? if I get poly, than 2-3 coats?

[Matthew N. Masail]

K I put two pieces in a cup of water, one coated with 3X CA glue the other plain, we'll see what happens. Advice still wellcome

[Paul Incognito]

My sharpening bench is douglas fir with 2 coats of poly. I probably should have done 3 coats, but I was in a hurry to get it finished. It's about 6 months old and holding up fine. I have no idea how Ca glue would hold up.

SharpeningBench.jpg

[Matthew N. Masail]

Thanks Paul, that's a really nice unit! + a ton of storage.. I should build something like your top unit. I'm only looking to protect to stone holder, the rest is fine.

[Brent VanFossen]

I made my water stone holders from pine and coated them with three layers of polyurethane. They're about a year old and holding up well.

[Paul Incognito]

Thanks Matt.
Everything there is made with reclaimed materials. The cabinet is resawn red pine beams, the top is douglas fir floor joists and the pine for the shelves above were salvaged. Cheap lumber is good, but free is much better.
Paul

[Stanley Covington]

The slickest solution (but not the cheapest) I have seen is to cover the station with copper sheeting, bent at the edges and soldered to form a shallow watertight container. The cool thing about copper is that, even if water gets trapped underneath it, oxidized copper is poisonous and so retards the growth of mold and mildew, and perhaps even the consumption of warm beer.

Stan

[Chris Griggs]

For ultimate water protection look up some information on boat building. Wooden boats are covered in a layer of fiber glass and epoxy. Tom Fidgen made a drawer in his sharpening bench that he lined with this. He keeps it filled with water for soaking his stones.

http://www.theunpluggedwoodshop.com/...ch-part-8.html

[Paul Saffold]

Plastic laminate, like Formica, will work, too. Just make sure any seams are really tight. Also the substrate should be really flat.
Paul

[Casey Gooding]

Epoxy will certainly do the job. When I used to build kayaks, we coated the inside and outside in epoxy before varnishing. Use several coats, brush on carefully and sand relatively smooth between.

[Jack Curtis]

Epoxy sure will. That plus white Marine paint is what I used to make a wooden darkroom sink waterproof 30 years ago. A friend still uses it.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Ran across a mention of this the other day:

http://books.google.com/books?id=jPY...20pond&f=false

(If the link doesn't pop up in the same place in the magazine that it does for me, look for Frank Klausz' article on a sharpening pond.) I've seen the "wooden gasket" technique used before, but never tried it myself.

We were thinking of picking up some solid-surface countertop material from a place that sells scraps to redo one of our small kitchen counters. Since we'd have to buy more adhesive for bonding the backsplash than we'd actually need, if we went that route, I'm tempted to make some waterstone accessories if we go that route. ..