While he was helping me find the parts for the Wire Ferrel and Steel
(or brass) Wire Wall Thickness Gauge in the Jan 2008 issue of Fred
Holder's magazine (also available on Wood Central's turning forum,
put there by the author/inventor), the Ace Hardware guy who was
helping me find things turned out to be a woodworker and turner.

In high school, he turned his own baseball bats - four part laminated
bats that had quarter sawn rain all the way round - and "boned" them
on the lathe to compress the surface wood. Harder bats make balls
go farther, all other things being equal.

Now here's where the serendipity comes in. He worked at a swimming
pool and used muriatic acid to clean filters. Somehow a piece of wood
got into the bucket of muriatic acid. For some unexplainable reason,
when he took it out he kept it.

A few days later he found it, discolored to a light gray. Just for fun
he decided to drill some holes in it. For some reason the wood was
unusually difficult to drill. He sanded off all the gray and tried
staining
the piece, expecting the end grain to absorb more stain, and become
darker. It didn't. So in addition to apparently making the wood
harder,
the muriatic soaking seemed to have sealed the end grain as well.

Any alchemists out there have any experience with this muriatic
"treatment" or a possible explanation of why it would make wood
harder - and seal end grain?

charlie b