What Happened to This Wood?

[Eric Jacobson]

I snagged a log from what I think is a Maple tree...it fell down in my neighbor's yard and he gave me a log.

What happened to the wood? I'm assuming it is moldy or has a similar problem. It has all these ugly dark green blotches on it.

But it gets even weirder. About 4 months after letting it sit with a wax finish, I washed the wax off, and within a few hours the blotches grew and became purple smudges. It looks like someone with purple stain on their fingers handled the bowl, but all I did was wash off the wax.

What's left of the log it came from, has turned black, just sitting in my backyard.

Any ideas?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

It appears to be spalting to my uneducated eyes and mind.

[David Christopher]

Eric, try putting some bleach on it....bleach should make that dissapear

[Ken Fitzgerald]

David...do you thing it's mildew?

[David Christopher]

David...do you thing it's mildew?

Ken, it looks like mildew or mold of some sort

[alex carey]

some sort of mold, happened on some pepper and on some ficus. Never happened with any other wood ive turned.

[Scott Hackler]

Soak it in Dna and kill off any bacteria. (just a guess)

[Jake Helmboldt]

Eric, are you sure it is maple? Tulip poplar will mold like that quite easily. If it is a pretty light wood I'd bet poplar, though the grain does loook a lot like maple, but I haven't seen it get surface mold like that.

JH

[Fred Perreault]

I have seen that occasionally in the local sycamore and soft maple I have turned when green. Usually it starts greenish/bluish, but fades a lot and is not too ugly. The rest of the stuff is in my back yard....hopefully spalting.

[Eric Kosanovich]

I'm Having the same prob here, made a post day befor yesterday.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=133314

It seems like it's trying to infect all my wood now.
If i find a way to stop it i will post it.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Sure looks like a mold of some form. If it is - rubbing alcohol will kill it. Use a small hand pump sprayer and mist the blank or brush some on. Should take care of the problem.

[Quinn McCarthy]

Looks like CODIT to me. Trees have the ability to compartmentalize rot fungus. Compartmentalizaion of disease in trees. Trees have the ability to compartmentalize rot fugus. It is a survival mechanism. Trees wall off the fungus that gets into the tree usually through a wound. So what is in that area is probably a fungus.

Quinn

[Bernie Weishapl]

First I would try bleach.

[david emmons]

Hi i think it is metal or wire in the log.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

It's just mold, bleach will kill it, but not until the wood is dry enough to prevent mold to grow is this enough, it will just reappear, the mold spore are in the air everywhere and will land on the wood, if conditions are right (moisture and temperature) the mold will grow.

[Nathan Hawkes]

Leo hit it right. Denatured alcohol does not kill all mold spores. It may kill all living mold, but a lot of fungal spores are very resilient. I've soaked bowls in pure DNA, put them in new unused paper bags, and had them still come out with mildew spots on them. Coincidentally, the type of wood that it happens most frequently with is the same as yours; red maple. Edit: the best results I've had concerning preventing mold spores has come from ensuring that there is adequate air circulation around the wood as it dries. This is a little touchy, as too much air circulation can cause cracks to appear, so I usually make my bowls pretty thin that I turn to finished thickness in one sitting.