Bummer! Mold and Cracks!

[Jason Ritchie]

How do you stop mold from forming while your drying your rough outs in a paper bag with damp shavings? I roughed this one out over a week ago and brought it in right away in a paper bag with the shavings from the rough out. The tree had been down for two years before I cut it up and roughed it out. I was also bummed to see that it had started cracking despite being in the bag sealed tight. I had high hopes for this piece. There is some mold on the inside bottom of the bowl as well. It looks like white fur growing so I assume its some sort of mold.

231017231018

[Roger Chandler]

Some of that will turn off with the finish turning............a lot of things happen with drying...........NC has a lot of humidity, so you might need to wrap your roughouts with paper after sealing them with a light coat of anchorseal and letting it air dry for a day............then a [single]layer of newspaper and bag it without shavings..........put a finger sized hole in the inside of the bowl so the air can escape a little and hopefully avoid much cracking.................

The wet shavings may have contributed a little............these drying techniques are so subjective.............and if you have other turners in your area..........see what works well for them..........a turning club is bound to be within an hour or so of you, avail yourself of their experience and techniques.

Did you soak first in denatured alcohol?

[Jason Ritchie]

Thanks Roger. Nah, no DNA. I didn't coat it with anchor seal either before bagging. Should I have? I'm very "green" to green turning and roughing out. pun intended for humor! I have done this once before without issue but it was a very small bowl and wood wasn't as wet as this one.

[Robert Henrickson]

A paper bag alone (or a cardboard box) is more likely to be successful, especially in avoiding mold.

[Jim Burr]

Jason, you'll find no refined answer for your dilemma, a percentage of turners use DNA, a percentage use plastic wrap, and a percentage use bag and shavings and there is a percentage using other stuff to be sure! All are right, all work for the individual because they still use it. Mold can and will happen unless you use DNA...the alcohol kills the bacteria....simply chemistry. Turn it off or pour some isopropol alcohol on the affected area. That will kill it. At the very least...you are using respiratory protection; we know you don't want a fungus in your lungs and it's the right thing to do...if you're not...we know you'll figure it out.

[Dennis Ford]

The wood likely had some tiny cracks already and they are now opening up, they may be OK or maybe not, it is hard to know. Since the wood is spalted, there are plenty of fungal spores and mold will grow if enough moisture is present. I would not worry about that small amount of mold but you do want to avoid letting the mold/spalting go too far.

[Mike Cruz]

The bottom line is, as I was told... If you are getting mold, it is drying too slowly...

[robert baccus]

What cracking--what mold--charge extra, that is character and should be labeled as such!!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Jason I coat the whole bowl with anchorseal and store in a cool place on the floor. I don't bag anymore because of the mold. I have had good success just coating and storing.

[Reed Gray]

That mold is pretty minimal, and will turn out. The piece of wood is pretty punky, and that is the reason for the tear out. I don't see much in the way of cracks, so wouldn't worry too much. Drying is as much of an art as the turning. You have some general rules for drying, and you have to fine tune them for your area, climate, piece/species of wood, and be able to adjust for seasonal variations. Not always a simple task. I do not use wet shavings, when I use them at all, which is almost never. I have gotten color stains from them.

Cracks = drying too fast. Mold = drying too slow.

robo hippy

[Jason Ritchie]

Thanks for all the responses so far! Can I get some definitions for "punky" as it is used here on the creek? I have a few pieces that when I handle them I know they are punky and don't bother with them. They came from an old sawmill in the Blueridge mountains and had been laying out in the weather for who knows how long and I wanted to try and at least make a table top from them but probably won't. Now this bowl came from a maple tree that the power company cut down to run new power lines about 2 years ago and doesn't seem punky to me but I'm somewhat new to how some of the terms are used here.

[Jamie Donaldson]

Punky is defined as soft areas in a piece of wood that is generally sound. These areas can sometimes be stabilized with thin CA or thinned lacquer in my case, then the process completed more like sound wood. Punky wood is often spalted, and sometimes it can be salvaged, and sometimes not!

[Reed Gray]

I really have no idea where the term "punky" wood comes from, but if you think of the punk sticks that you use for lighting off fire crackers, that is pretty close (I prefer an electric butane torch, but that is another story). If you ever take a log section for bowls, cut it in half, then turn one to rough or finish thickness, than let the other one sit for 6 months to a year before turning, and compare the finished product, there will be huge differences in brightness of color, and texture, with the fresh turned piece looking a lot brighter than the log section that has waited. When anything dies, first order of business is turning into compost. Maple, in particular, has a lot of sugar in it which is ideal for all those microbes, bacteria, and other things that turn good solid wood into compost. I got a sugar maple a year or so ago, which is very rare out here. I turned a bunch right away, and let the rest sit for a few months in our rainy season. When I got back to the remaining pieces, they really looked bad, and there were a lot of punky areas in it, so most of it went to fire wood. I could have made bowls from them, but the color spectrum, to me, would have made them pieces that would have sat on the shelf for a long time without selling because they just didn't feel or look right. A maple on the ground for a year, too long for me, and not worth the effort. Some famous turner, and I can't remember who pointed out that the luster was gone from wood very quickly after it is cut, and dead. After that was pointed out to me, I watched it closely for a few years, and noticed that it was true.

robo hippy

[Jason Ritchie]

Man, I learn more and more every day here. I have a ton of punky maple then that I just cut up and sealed. What a shame.

[Russell Neyman]

I always assumed that "punky wood" was essentially dry rot. If I'm wrong, somebody set me straight. The CA glue technique works best for me, and instead of trying to hide the deformity I actually go in the other direction, adding colored stuff (powders, stains, coffee, etc) to make it look like grain or a feature. As far as the mold/spalting goes, I find the look desireable and generally don't try to stop it until I'm ready to turn, and then a good DNA soak kills it. Or, if I want a lighter wood, I use wood bleach, which gives an interesting effect. Another technique is to sprinkle a bit of chlorine in wood shavings and put that in the bag with the bowl blank.

A word about the wood bleach: Taking away most of the natural coloring and then re-adding a new color with dyes gives a wonderful and unusual effect. (This is the two-part system specifically made for bleaching wood, and not Oxalic acid, by the way.) It's worth a day's experiment if you're looking for an unusual grian, IMO. I should start a separate thread on this subject, because I've gotten good results working with subtle coloring.