Mold problem

[Phil Labowski]

I have some oak logs from a tree my father cut down, problem is many of them have mold. I sanded the mold off of one stump, but the stain was still there. I broke out the chisel and chipped away about 1/2" and the stain was still pretty strong. Does the stain go all through the log? How do I protect the rest of the wood from mold while it ages?

[Bill Bolen]

I've run into the mold problem on occasion. Usually when the temp and humidity is not right to get the wood to spalt. Instead it just molds. The only thing I have herd about that will slightly lighten the mold is a dousing with bleach. Tried it and it did lighten the mold a bit but the staining was still visiable. So, treated it as a feature and it looked ok...Bill..

[Prashun Patel]

Are you sure it's mold and not just a tannic acid stain?

[curtis rosche]

theres nothing wrong with slightly spaulted oak. it can get some cool colors like green and light purple

[Phil Labowski]

oh it's mold all right Shawn, there's a big patch of it still on one of the larger logs.

[alex carey]

I think mold and spalting are a bit different. Mold tends to look like ugly greyish patches where as spalting usually adds to the piece.

I think the question that should have been asked is, how are you storing these logs?

Too stop the spreading I think I too would try bleach, that'll kill just about anything. Haven't tried it but I think it would work.

[Joseph M Lary]

My brother in law in florida gets mold on palm logs that he turns , he adds 1/2 cup bleach to 1 gal of water and sprays it on it cleans up some of the mold. and keeps more from starting . Said it will discolor some woods you just have to test it on some .If its real bad he has used stright bleach on them .

[Phil Labowski]

my dad had the stacked end to end (the larger ones at least) those are the worst ones. I have the rest just stacked like a normal wood pile next to my shed out of the sun. I've read somewhere about sealing the ends and storing them like that. I have some mold resistant paint would that be a good thing to seal with after I bleach away the mold? I'm a noob so this going to be my practice wood, but I need to know this for future reference.
Thanks again all!

[Dick Sowa]

I rough turned some green (very wet) maple several years ago and dried them in a microwave oven. One batch, which wasn't quite dry enough, I left overnight in the microwave...humid environment. Next morning, the bowls were molded all the way through. The mold had penetrated through a full 1-1/2" of wall thickness in just one night. I don't know about other woods, but at least for maple, it will go all the way through.

[curtis rosche]

the stuff i found to seal for seams to keep mold away. it from Sikkens, you can get it at a paint store, its called Pre-Log Treatment. so far the maple i cut up has not yet molded at all, and it was soaking wet, i think the stuff kills mold. also i covers 400-600sqft versus only 100sqft from anchor seal

[Phil Labowski]

so you leave the bark on, slap that stuff on and just stack it? I'm a little unclear on how you "dry" wood. This I need because I plan to turn something like boxes (kind of a vase with a lid). and I would like to have dry wood that it's all black from mold :eek: