[Cob] Glass impregnated wood timbers

[Raduazo at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/12/2005 10:01:44 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
ap615 at hotmail.com writes:

Joyce  wrote:
Does anyone have any information or web sites to reference about a  new
timber product I saw on TV (This Old House maybe). The timbers were  coated
with a glass product of some type, heated to a point where the glass  melted
into the wood and provided a protective coating that could be  stained -



The melting point of glass is far higher than the combustion temperature of  
wood. My feeling would be that this is not possible, however there is 
something  called waterglass, a silicon compound that is dissolved in water and when 
dry is  very resistant to re-hydration. It has been used for coating earth 
products, but  I think it may have problems in that water which penetrates through 
cracks in  the finish can not evaporate.
Ed