Epoxy sealing hardwoods

[ProfessorM]

I am finishing up some darters and was wondering if anyone has or is sealing them with epoxy, heating the wood technique. I do this for soft woods and luv it. I also see no gain in weight to these plugs that are sealed this way. I was going to do the regular helsman soak for the birch ones I made but started to think I may try the epoxy as there seems to be a weight gain to the hard woods if you soak too long and the epoxy would add strength to the front lip part too which gets beat up a lot. So is there anyone who could offer the pros and cons of using this method for hardwoods such as maple and birch. If you do use it does the epoxy need to be thinned down much more so penetration occurs in a more substantial rate? P.