Customer Reviews for Varathane 16 oz. High Performance Wood Hardener

The container lid is difficult to open. Must push down HARD and twist. Then once it is open if ANY of the wood hardener gets on the neck of the container when you put the lid back on the hardener does exactly that and "Hardens", making the lid IMPOSSIBLE to remove for future use. The Hardener aspect for wood works OK.

Easy way to treat wood just starting to rot/decompose.

I had a can of this product in my shed for over 20 years and used it very little. It finally got lost. I recently bought a fresh can and tho I felt it was pretty high priced, I needed it to harden up some water damaged legs on a bench I was working on. It did a great job and after I was finished hardening the legs I mixed some with very fine sawdust I had from sanding projects to even out some voids on the bottom of the legs. This worked great too! No complaints but be careful not to get it on other surfaces when applying it as this just creates extra work bringing these surfaces back to where they belong. You might say, "I learned the hard way." I would definitely buy it again.

This is a good product that I use on horizontal surfaces. I use this alone if there is no rot. I then use with a filler if needed. It does well and it dries quick. You can use this on vertical surfaces as well, but I usually stick to a 2part epoxy for those applications.

Love the product, it works well. Of the 5 bottles on the shelf, three were leaking at this Home Depot. The last HD i stopped at, they 6 bottles and three were leaking. Which also means evaporation of product in the bottle, so not getting a full bottle and the price has totally risen beyond belief!

It was some difficult in matching the proportions needed to apply to the wood. It hardened quickly for me, quicker than 15 minutes due to the wrong amounts (50-1). I was able to do my project but had to work very quickly but lacked smoothness in the end but I am pleased.

I have used this product before and it has always been reliable to harden soft wood.

I had two problem areas: rotting porch eave beam face and wood beam to column connector bolt recess. On the porch eave beam, I excavated the rotten wood and spray bottle applied the material in preparation for acrylic wood filler. The beam to column connector had decayed bondo filler over the recessed connector I removed and poured the material inside. Both worked well as a prep to new wood filler and both were easily worked well to final finish and coating.

I love this stuff. I've used it many times. Be sure to clean out any loose fibers and get the "wood" to dry before applying. Also, protect surrounding items you don't want to get messed up. I use a chip brush so I don't have to try to clean it. It's more dabbing than brushing ultimately. Then use bondo if needed. This seals the rotted component so I don't have to tear it out.

Cost too much compared to other brands

Hardens soft, rotten wood to rock hard in about half an hour. Great product for preparing rotten wood for repair.

Seems to work well. Buy more than you think you will need. The wood soaks it up tremendously so it doesn't go as far as you think it will.

A few years ago, I saved a couple thousand dollars by repairing a back door that had a rotten bottom corner, about the size of a baseball. I reinforced the entire rotten area thoroughly with wood hardener and then filled the area with Abatron Woodepox. It worked perfectly.

This product is amazing. Used it on some interesting logs that were placed in the garden and now they are almost like petrified wood.

Impressive. Wood treated hard as a rock and easy to apply.

Great product. Have use it in the past. If used correctly, it will give you a great base for filling in rotted areas.

Works great, seems expensive

I am using this to harden blocks of wood before I turn them on the lathe works out pretty well.

Great stuff to harden up wood. I used it on end grain of an exposed wood member that was deteriorating. It bound the wood fibers together and was able to paint with no further issues 10 yrs later. I will admit, I kept applying and soaking the end piece the best I could and it did the job perfectly!