Thread: Wooden base on a JNat

Not very traditional but how about Thompson's Water Seal? It is specifically formulated to waterproof wood.

Originally Posted by mainaman

You can soak the stones in water and nothing happens ( I soaked mine for 4 days), in Japan the guys that do sword polishing keep their stones in buckets with water.
The strata had formed on the bottom of the sea for millions of years, .

Sea water does not have the solvent power of pure water. If you have a stone that has a slight fracture in it pure water can hasten a weaken the crack. I suppose if the stone is healthy it may not be an issue. I seal all my jnat bottoms and sides to prevent water from soaking into stone but that is just me. seems like there are very knowlegeable people who see this issue from both sides. Part of my routine with my finishing stones is to rinse then dry off before putting them away. Maybe they are like cars, some like to dry off and baby them others let the water dry off on it's own.

Originally Posted by Kingfish

Sea water does not have the solvent power of pure water. If you have a stone that has a slight fracture in it pure water can hasten a weaken the crack. I suppose if the stone is healthy it may not be an issue. I seal all my jnat bottoms and sides to prevent water from soaking into stone but that is just me. seems like there are very knowlegeable people who see this issue from both sides. Part of my routine with my finishing stones is to rinse then dry off before putting them away. Maybe they are like cars, some like to dry off and baby them others let the water dry off on it's own.

I am a fan of sealing the stones too, just in case, I also leave them dry on their own

What about warping of the wood when it gets wet? I would
think it could warp the stone ever so slightly.

Originally Posted by SharpMan

What about warping of the wood when it gets wet? I would
think it could warp the stone ever so slightly.

I don't think stones warp, even ever so slightly

Originally Posted by SharpMan

What about warping of the wood when it gets wet? I would
think it could warp the stone ever so slightly.

If the wood is right kind, or properly water proofed it will not warp. The wood has to be also cut the right way.

Thanks for the good advice. It´s great to be able to ask just about any question, and get a bunch of good answers from people that know more than I.
Considering some of the answers I got, I decided to waterproof the base. Probably nothing would have happened if I chose not to, but I wanted to be on the safe side.
I sealed the gap between the stone and the base with some epoxy, the following day I diluted some shellac for the 5 first layers, and put on 5 more layers to finish it.
I don´t know if it´s better looking, but atleast it is waterproof

That project turned out great, did you use water resistant epoxy?

Originally Posted by mainaman

That project turned out great, did you use water resistant epoxy?

Thanks!
Yes, water resistant epoxy from west systems and lots of shellac
I guess the stone is permanently glued to the base now, but that´s no problem.

Look much better now