different manufactures

Trade has a single hardener no choice. it is a very dark almost mahogany colour pot life and timescale is not defined ie one batch might give you 10 min but another batch we buy in may give you 20 min

black bear again is a different hardener.  the difference between MAS and black bear is a Skoda and a Jaguar you get what you pay for.

Mas is the Rolls Royce of epoxy. it can be warmed in the micro wave to re set the chemical set up so there is no shelf life. you can blend the hardeners to your working practice. the 2 2 1 mix always gives good results. it is very forgiving and you can use all known fillers with it

Most important for me as I am sensitised to epoxy is that MAS is not made from the standard core chemicals that West SP system 3 and so on are made from and I can get it on my skin work with it all day long and have no problems with my skin or face 

MAS has a different set up most epoxies once you mix the two parts together starts a chemical reaction which stats off the set MAS does not work like that but tends to stay dormant in the pot then kicks in which gives me time to work the stuff, including scraping it off and starting again. it also means I can mix batches of 3 litres plus of MAS with out problems of melted pots and batch fire's

But one of the best things to most people is the no blush no wax property of MAS. The biggest failure in epoxy work whether it is the finish coat on top or another layer of epoxy or bonding to epoxy is the waxing if it is not removed then the point between paint or epoxy will not be a good one. The problem is this, people see the wax and remove it great and they carry on but all the products that produce wax will continue to produce wax through their curing cycle even after if the temperature range is sufficient and removing wax can be messy and a real pain .Personally, I have enough to do with out adding to the process  

The last thing that I find is the wet out I like that I can wet out all my cloths very easily including some real heavy layering this is again because of the makeup of the resin, which should always be clear.If it's not simply warm it up it will go clear and its ready for use again

As a closing note, I also like MAS because of their continued and on going investment in making epoxy better and easier to use. some products you might not have heard of are

portable water which allows you to make drinking water tanks out of ply and glass cloth and fuel which stands up to the new fuels that are around with both these products what you put into your tank is what you get out there is no contamination from the tank material

Pete