Sealant for Live-Edge Wood
cproberts
| Posted in Green Products and Materials on
Looking to purchase a piece of live edge cedar or cypress for coffee table. What is best no VOC sealant,epoxy… to use. Suffer from MCS
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Tung oil is natural and penetrates the wood. Usually it's mixed with citrus solvent 1:1 to speed up curing.
Our wood floors have held up well having used the tung oil / citrus solvent:
https://kimchiandkraut.net/2020/02/21/3-4-hardwood-flooring-in-a-self-build-passive-house/
It definitely smells during application and for several days after, but mostly just oranges from the citrus solvent.
Some other options would include hard wax oil finishes like Rubio Monocoat, Osmo Polyx, Odie's, etc. They all work pretty well, although the Osmo definitely stinks the most, at least during application.
In terms of online resources, I've had good luck ordering various 'green' products from these two websites:
https://www.greenbuildingsupply.com/All-Products/Paints-Coatings-Wood-Stains-Sealers
https://worldclasssupply.com/store/
If you look around online, you may be able to find a similar store near you.
If you pursue epoxy, this product I've found works the best (as with all 2-part epoxy products, you really need to follow the instructions): https://www.superepoxysystems.com/liquid-glass-epoxy/
It doesn't have much smell during application.
The tung oil, or the hard wax oil finishes, will give you a more natural looking finish.