After playing with CPES, I have some additional tidbits to offer. CPES is claimed to be made with resins made from wood, rather than petrochemicals, and is therefore claimed to be flexible. Don't know about the chemistry, but experiments bear out the flexibility. One good dousing of a sample of WRC leaves it thoroughly penetrated, but still flexible. Rot Doc says one application will not waterproof good wood, but will knock moisture absorption down to 30% or so. Three applications are normally required to completely seal good wood.

So, the real question here is what end result do you prefer? If you're looking for something rigid like Micarta, CPES won't get you there. System 3 Clear Coat might, if you use the vacuum method suggested above. But if all you need is something to make the blank machine more easily and be less prone to runout and splintering, CPES alone might be just the ticket. You can buy kits as small as 2 pints, so try it and see how it works before gearing up for vacuum.

BTW, when the Marine Corp upgraded the M-14 for use as the M-21 sniper rifle, they used resin, vacuum pretreatment and pressure application on walnut stocks. The result was heavy, but impervious to water and dimensionally stable. So the method has been demonstrated to work.