For years and years wood workers would go through their stock piles of lumber and come across a piece that had open knot holes, or deep worm paths, cracks, missing chunks, all to just toss it in the scrap pile or worse, the burn pile!
At some point, a woodworker discovered that if you fill the void in lumber with Epoxy, it bonds with the wood. So much so, that the bond between wood and epoxy is stronger than the wood itself. Throw in some pigment or dye into the epoxy and you have the modern day art of Wood and Epoxy.
Epoxy is a two part system, there is the Epoxy resin, and then the hardener, mix the two together in the proper ratio and in a few days you have Solid Epoxy. Epoxy was discovered by a few different scientists in various parts of the world in the 1930's. It was patented several times over and introduced into the commercial marketplace in the 40's and 50's. It has been used over the years for things such as Dental prosthetics, floor covering and artwork coverings. Worldwide today there are 5 billion gallons of Epoxy created worldwide!
For the woodworker, once the epoxy cures, you can manage it just like wood. You can cut in on your table saw, do a round over on your router table, and lastly sand it to a silky smooth finish. Working with epoxy is a bit like Chemistry class, you have to mix the resin with the hardener in just the proper ratio, otherwise it will not cure properly (ask me how I know that). As it cures it is going through an exothermic reaction, and the fluid moves. It gives you those cool swirls that you may see. When done right, it is absolutely beautiful.
You can buy Epoxy kits in just about every hardware store across the US, we use Ice Epoxy exclusively, Ice Epoxy is available in multiple varieties, and you can even buy it on Amazon! Ice Epoxy has even featured a few of our items on their social media feeds!
We have made coasters, serving trays, console tables, dining room tables. We were once asked to make an 11ft long bar top! You can find a lot of our Epoxy items in the Epoxy Collection on our website.
We are always dreaming of new things, if an Epoxy project is something you are interested, give us a shout! We would love to hear from you.