Is it mold?

[Tom Keen]

Hi, I roughed out a couple of pieces of very green black cherry today. Within an hour they had black, sooty looking splooge on them. It appears to be mold..I think. Any suggestions on how to get rid of it, better yet prevent it?

Ive attached a pic.

Thanks!

[Russell Housman]

Tom it's hard to see from the pictures but it's probably mold depending on how wet the wood was and how high the humidity is where you are keeping it. I'm a Mold Inspector by trade and my suggestion is to take 50/50 split of bleach & water and clean the wood down then store it in a dry location. If the mold does not return you are good to go, but if it does than the mold spores are deep in the wood and any time it gets wet or is left in a humid location you could fine mold growing back on it. Mold is a living organism and sometimes it's hard to get rid of, but as I always tell my customers "Moisture Control is Mold Control". Good luck and let me know how it turns out.

Russell ;)

[Jim King]

I use swimming pool chlorine / water as Russel said against mold on my green blanks and or boil them. Both work well.

[George Tokarev]

Black mildew. Nasty stuff, and the reason I don't use Anchorseal. Must be pretty wet down there if the stuff got a foothold that fast. Only way to help is to get below about 18% moisture as quickly as good sense permits. Friend of mine suggested kicking out unbound moisture with compressed air after roughing, and it's been a great difference on whiter woods where it was a race between dry and dirt in the past. Won't do much good on long stuff, but something to consider for bowls. Might shorten the time in the mildew zone by a few days, and that could be enough.

White, or "hairy" mildew doesn't set such deep roots, and can usually be turned away.