Green Mold on Silver Maple

[Burt Alcantara]

Much to my surprise and shock, I discovered on the last round of blank cutting I only sealed one side. When I turned over the blanks, some had thick patches of green mold.

I've scraped off as much as possible using a stiff wire brush. Do I need to wipe this down with some kind of disinfectant? Or, can I just seal the blanks with wax and put them away?

BTW, the blanks are rectangles for hollow forms. The logs sat outside for about 6 months. I began cutting them because of excessive checking. The blanks are still fairly wet. There's some interesting color in some.

Thanks,
Burt

[Steve Schlumpf]

Burt - sounds like the blanks have a real good start on spalting! If it were me - I would scrap off the bulk of it and then seal with anchorseal until you are ready to turn them. No need to worry about the mold as all of that will be turned off when you create your hollow forms. Have fun with it - just don't lick your fingers!

[Matt Hutchinson]

I have this happen a lot, with many species of wood. I don't think that there is anything to worry about. In fact, most of the time I just ignore it. However, it's not a bad idea to make sure air can flow around all sides. This will also reduce the chance of molding.

Hutch

[Burt Alcantara]

Good to know.
Thanks for the information.

Burt

[Paul Engle]

Green is good ..... least on the turning it looks good ,I've had it on a lot of spalted birch and was not a problem.
Did you manage to get any of the wood from the capital building grounds when they cut down the trees in 06 -07 ? I heard aabout it just after it was all gone....:mad:

[Burt Alcantara]

Paul,
Most of the wood I got was from the rotten limbs of American Elm. I was able to make some small blanks for boxes. I did manage to get a 100# block (Elm) that I haven't cut yet. Still trying to figure out how I want to cut it.

They preped the wood right off downtown Eagle. Don't recall the street; a block or 2 off State. I managed to get a lot of good wood from the trash heaps.

I vaguely remember posting something here about the time that was going down because I knew there were a few Idahoans on the board. Surprised you didn't see it.

Burt

[Paul Engle]

Think I caught the post here and went online to P&R site but was too late to sign up and IIRC one had to be there and could not afford the trip or something like that.