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Thread: Looking for a thick, clear, epoxy to put on tree bark.

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Cleveland, O.
    Posts
    15

    Looking for a thick, clear, epoxy to put on tree bark.

    I'm building an indoor tree house for a kids' center and want to protect the bark from all the little hands that'll be grabbing it. I know there are bar-top epoxies out there but I'm not sure if those are the best product for this application since it won't be a smooth horizontal surface during application. Any suggestions? I'd also like something that isn't terribly expensive.

  2. #2
    I have used water base poly - multiple coats with light sanding.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Bellingham, Washington
    Posts
    1,149
    Why not take the bark off?
    Bracken's Pond Woodworks[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

  4. #4
    I only have very little experience with trying to do this....mostly because all my experiments have ended in miserable failure. I don't think you'll succeed in keeping that bark on a live edge, especially with constant abuse from children. You'll probably just be called back to fix it when it starts coming off. Anyhow, I think your best bet is to literally entomb the entire piece in epoxy as you're suggesting, or at a minimum the bark and a good chunk of board. Bark will generally fall off on it's own in just a couple of years, and that's without kid beating on it everyday. I'm still very suspicious that even entombed in epoxy that it would reliably last under any sort of daily handling and abuse.

    Anyhow, that's just my opinion based on some research I did a while back, and my own experience. I searched around some more just now to see if there was some other technique that I missed, because I'd love to be able to reliably do this too, but I didn't find anything different. I had an idea to build a really rustic guitar using some live edges and bark, but gave up on the bark.
    Last edited by John Coloccia; 09-21-2014 at 6:12 PM.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Cleveland, O.
    Posts
    15
    Thanks for the comments. Sounds like it'll be challenging. I want to leave the bark on to maintain the authentic look. If it comes down to it, though...

  6. #6
    I am with John. The bark does not bond well to the wood. I've learned that from turning live edge bowls. Even re-gluing the bark to the wood doesn't work for heavy use applications.

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