Abstract: A process for providing a hardened wooden product from a source wooden item, said process comprising or including loading a pressure vessel with sapwood items of sufficient dryness, drawing a reduced pressure in the closed pressure vessel, immersing the sapwood in the pressure vessel in an aqueous aminoplast resin impregnating composition (‘aqueous formulation’), pressurising the impregnating composition in the treatment vessel, removing excess impregnating composition from the fully impregnated sapwood in the pressure vessel, lowering the pressure in the vessel, opening the pressure vessel, removing the impregnated sapwood from the pressure vessel, subjecting the removed impregnated sapwood to conditions to reduce its moisture content, subjecting the dryer impregnated sapwood to conditions to facilitate curing, subjecting the at least substantially cured impregnated sapwood to conditions to further reduce the moisture content thereof thereby to derive the hardened sapwood product.