A heat curable epoxy composition comprising the contact product of an epoxy resin, an epoxy curing agent and an accelerator for the epoxy curing agent, the curing agent or the accelerator comprising the reaction product of (a) a phenolic resin (a) of general formula: Where R1, R2, R3, R4 are each independently of one another a hydrogen or unbranched or branched alky group having 1 to 17 carbon atoms, and n is an integer form 0 to 50; and (b) a modified amine compound which is the reaction product of an epoxy resin and a methylated polyalkylenepolyamine having one primary or secondary amine and at least two tertiary amines of the general formula: Where R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5 represent hydrogen, methyl or ethyl; n and m independently are integers from 1 to 10 and; X is an integer from 1 to 10.