[Bowhunter32]

Prepping this slab for a kitchen island. The large area of lighter stuff top right then going down a bit is extremely soft. Should I route it out and do a tinted epoxy (black or river/blue) then seal with arm r seal as planned? Or thin epoxy for the first coat and then finish with epoxy? Or?

I'm afraid the grain won't pop as much with the epoxy..

 

[Matt1371]

Great looking slab, going to be an awesome top! For a minute it looked like the yellow extension cord was part of the grain in the first pic. Ive heard of grain harding liquids, always wondered about this, following.

 

[Bowhunter32]

Or I could even split it, turn the flat cut sides outward, cut out the punky areas, and form and pour epoxy?

 

[ibewjon]

I have never done a counter top, but for other projects I soak the area with thin super glue. It soaks in and hardens the soft wood.

 

[ChefHDAN]

I'm not a fan of the river table craze, I have a theory that the goodwill store will be full of the in 10 years... but who knows...

I think a penetrating type epoxy (System 3 Rot Fix) would be the best solution but key to the use will be the end user for the island top. If it's a relatively quiet household where the island will just look beautiful and not be a daily work zone for meal prep it could be fine, ultimately I'd be real clear with the customer about the area and let them drive the bus. As for the grain pop Charles Neil has a great video on trace coating for figure that is a great tutorial, (they're all pretty great), and if I was in your situation I think I'd go with a trace coat for the figure and then use a penetrating epoxy sealer for the top coat.

 

[logboy73]

Whenever I deal with punky wood on epoxy pours I use a penetrating epoxy over the entire slab. Otherwise your epoxy finish will soak in and you’ll have thin spots. I use Masepoxies penetrating epoxy. I just keep rolling it on the slab all over the place to try to keep the whole thing wet. You’ll notice the punky spots soak up a lot. Then give it a couple days to dry and you can do a fine sand with like 180 grit. Wipe it down and you’re ready for your final epoxy finish. Just make sure and wear a mask, it doesn’t smell that bad but you’ll be high as a kite and slurring your words within hours. I used penetrating epoxy on this spalted maple headboard for a customer.

 

[Bowhunter32]

I picked up totalboat penetrating epoxy for the rot, totalboat high performance for the voids and cracks, and their tabletop epoxy for topcoat. I'll then probably find something to protect it from UV. That's the game plan anyways. I may experiment with the penetrating epoxy and arm r seal a little. I'm also going to inlay some bowties.