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SEALING LURES.......THE INS AND OUTS.....HOW TO...WHAT TO USE!

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Salty:
Something I saw that I didn't expand on. Why can't a lure be sealed completely from water, and why some products work better than others.

First a piece of wood always has an inherent moisture content. Typically wood when alive is up around 60-80% moisture content. Moisture content is measured by inserting a set of probes into the wood parallel with the grain so cells are "connected" by the internal "tubes", the resistance of the electrical current sent through the probes gives you a fairly accurate reading of how much moisture is in a piece of wood. Our hardwood is vacuum dried to 6-7% moisture, wood in Home Depot/Lowes etc is in the range of 14-25% moisture content even marked Kiln Dried. I air dry my own white pine and cedar and don't turn it until it's around 10-12%. Temperature, humidity, etc can affect the amount of moisture in a piece of wood tremendously. Did you ever see your hardwood floor shrink in the winter? There's less moisture then than in the summer...different temperature.

That being said, wood is like a sponge with water, and water is one very small molecule that can get into VERY small cracks and voids, and this happens no matter what you do. So lets say you fish a lure and it soaks up enough water to gain .1 oz....that's a good sized drop of water. Next time you have your gram scale out (a handy tool when lure building) drop a few drops of water on it and see how much it takes to gain certain amounts. All it takes is one drop to soak in, the grain swells very slightly, and CRACK goes your paint, top coat, primer, all of it. It's all got to be a cohesive system in order to manage the normal wood expansion and contraction both by temperature and the exposure to water.

So there's the reason why some products work better than others, each has it's own elasticity. If it's too hard you get wood/and or paint failure. Too soft and you get paint delamination and  sometime complete failure on the the entire lure from fish teeth.

Salty:
Question asked today if the lure needs to be sanded after it's sealed.

I wouldn't, I would let the oil dry and harden fully, if you do anything to it then it will need to be wiped which can introduce all kinds of problems. Unless your making it for show I would directly prime the lure and paint it. Avaiod handling it with your hands once it's been sealed and all during painting. Finger oils can cause some nasty things to happen like fish eyes etc.

Salty:
This looks very promising as a hi tech wood sealer. Would like to see a lure sealed in this and how much water it absorbs.

http://solarez.com/products/polyester-uv-cure-grain-sealer/

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