Check THIS out!!

[Bree]

I cut a block of Beeswing Narra this weekend... Saturday... It was nicely waxed and when I put a moisture meter to the wood it clocked in at 7-8%. Cool. I turned a nice pen from one of the blanks and it looked great and still does.

I set the rest of the blanks on some Figured Asian Satinwood blanks (dry) and forgot about them. The basement is cool with a dehumdifier running. Today I went down there for a diffrent reason and look what I found.

In a few days the blanks are covered with white mold or fungus!! It is wispy and will almost peel off.

The ends are full of it too

The sections where there is wax show no mold.

The mother block with Anchorseeal applied to the section cut.

The Satinwood blanks on top of which the Narra blanks were sitting... no problems with them.

What the heck is going on here? I have never had mold or fungus on any of my wood. I have over 700 board feet down in this basement. And nothing like this has ever happened.

 

[PaulSF]

I was afraid you were going to say bees were flying out of them!

 

[Manny]

I only have 2 questions
1) You didn't go into your shop for three days????
2) You have room to store 700 board feet in your basement???

Sap maybe?
Did you check the moisture in the cut pieces?

 

[Bree]

I only have 2 questions
1) You didn't go into your shop for three days????
2) You have room to store 700 board feet in your basement???

Sap maybe?
Did you check the moisture in the cut pieces?

You guys are funny!

Moisture was 7-8%. These blanks were just taken out of wax on Saturday. They are dry and turned dry. But they are fuzzy as can be today. Some of them were soaked with Denatured Alcohol as I was checking out the grain. This makes no sense.

 

[Lenny]

Bree,
I'd be worried they might contaminate your other woods. PM me and I'll give you an address where you can send them to be disposed of. :biggrin:

 

[Russianwolf]

did you seal the cut blanks with anything? For the life of me, the only thing I can think of is some kind of wax looking at it.

 

[DCBluesman]

Molds, which are a subset of fungi, require only three things for sustainment: water, which can be simple humidity of ambient air in the home, food and a surface to grow on (substrate). Wood provides excellent food in the form of starches, sugars, proteins and fats. While the internal moisture of your wood may be 7-8%, it is highly unlikely your basement humidity is that low. Therefore, the humidity will be higher on the surface of the wood. Mold spores, present in almost every environment, can also settle on the surface. Remember, spalted wood is often caused by the molds and other fungi!

There are an estimated 1000 species of mold native to the United States and over 100,000 species worldwide. Introducing species from one geography to another sometimes creates a "perfect storm" situation.

To reduce the chance of this occurrence, it is widely suggested that wood be stored in an environment with excellent airflow on all exposed surfaces.

 

[DCBluesman]

You guys are funny!

Some of them were soaked with Denatured Alcohol as I was checking out the grain. This makes no sense.

It makes more sense than is apparent. Alcohol breaks down into simple sugars...more food for the mold!

 

[PaulSF]

I'd say go ahead and make pens out of them, but call them chia pens

 

[Texatdurango]

Molds, which are a subset of fungi, require only three things for sustainment: water, which can be simple humidity of ambient air in the home, food and a surface to grow on (substrate). Wood provides excellent food in the form of starches, sugars, proteins and fats. While the internal moisture of your wood may be 7-8%, it is highly unlikely your basement humidity is that low. Therefore, the humidity will be higher on the surface of the wood. Mold spores, present in almost every environment, can also settle on the surface. Remember, spalted wood is often caused by the molds and other fungi!

I didn't know that! The next time I screw up a blank, I'm not tossing it in the thash..... I'm eating it!

 

[Bree]

But why didn't the Satinwood or Cocobolo blanks that were under or next to the Narra get moldy??? I mean they are clean as a baby's butt.

The next question is how to clean these blanks so I can send them all to Lenny???
:wink::wink::wink:

 

[Fred]

"What the heck is going on here? I have never had mold or fungus on any of my wood. I have over 700 board feet down in this basement. And nothing like this has ever happened."

Well, as your name implies your wood is turning into cheese!

"The next question is how to clean these blanks so I can send them all to Lenny???"

You don't clean them just send them as they are and cross contaminate his stock pile. One of you two will end up with some very interesting spalting I'm sure.

In all honesty if it were my wood I would cut it up outside as the fungus/mold spores will get all over everything by air movement. Either reseal them all in wax and set them aside for a OR boil them and then air dry them ASAP. You have to kill the sources of the mystery fungus/mold or else it will return and get ya!

 

[DurocShark]

Like Fred said, I'd just boil 'em, dry 'em, wax 'em.

 

[wdcav1952]

Originally Posted by DCBluesman
Molds, which are a subset of fungi, require only three things for sustainment: water, which can be simple humidity of ambient air in the home, food and a surface to grow on (substrate). Wood provides excellent food in the form of starches, sugars, proteins and fats. While the internal moisture of your wood may be 7-8%, it is highly unlikely your basement humidity is that low. Therefore, the humidity will be higher on the surface of the wood. Mold spores, present in almost every environment, can also settle on the surface. Remember, spalted wood is often caused by the molds and other fungi!

I didn't know that! The next time I screw up a blank, I'm not tossing it in the thash..... I'm eating it!

New activity for the Birthday Bash. We all need to gather up all of our screwed up blanks, send them to George and tell him to EAT IT!!
:biggrin::tongue::biggrin:

 

[galoot_loves_tools]

It makes more sense than is apparent. Alcohol breaks down into simple sugars...more food for the mold!

Neither ethanol or methanol will break down to simple sugars. Ain't gonna happen.

 

[Bree]

I wiped them and the white mold just came right off in most places. It was not deeply into the wood... just on the surface. Then I gave them a scrub with diluted bleach and set them to dry near where they first got moldy. So we'll see how they look in the AM.
:wink::wink::wink:

 

[Bree]

Mold blew through household bleach diluted 50/50 with water. It didn't even slow it down. Next I tried vinegar full strength and that reduced it somewhat but did not eliminate it. It was blooming on the end grain and across the blank bodies this morning.

So I just sprayed them all with Lysol. Let's see what that does. If that fails I have Simple Green D which is a hugely powerful disinfectant/antifungal with between 1.35 and 2% active ingredients compared to similar Mr Clean products with .005%. If that fails... they go to the microwave.

I have never seen anything like this. But I am going to kill this one way or the other!!

 

[Bree]

Checked the blanks. After two applications of full strength Professional Lysol, two of the blanks were fuzzing with white fuzz on the endgrain and two faces of the blanks. Unbelievable.

So they have all been sprayed with Simple Green D at 50% strength. If that doesn't work they go to a pot of boiling water. And I think they are going to boiling in any case because I don't trust the wood. This stuff is not coming from the environment, it is in the wood. Nothing could live under the assault that the surface of these blanks have been through. This stuff is deep in the wood and coming to the top. That is my thinking on it. Nothing else makes sense.

If I turn this wood, I will simply peel off the outer layers of wood and expose infected wood underneath contaminating my equipment and environment. It has to be boiled to kill this crap through and through. The parent blocks will also have to be boiled.

 

[BruceK]

I'd try microwaving them.....

 

[leestoresund]

Mold

Get hold of Steven Spielberg or Stephen King.

Great sci-fi or horror story.

Lee

 

[Bree]

I went down to check the blanks. The Simple Green D was good food for them. They are sprouting their white fuzz again.

Absolutely unbelievable. Bleach, vinegar, high strength Lysol, super powerful disinfectant & fungicide... nothing seems to stop this mold/fungus. I am utterly amazed at how persistant this stuff is. By tomorrow morning, many will have the beginning or be well on their way to a nice white coat of mold/fungus.

So into the microwave and/or a boiling pot they go.

 

[Bree]

Microwaved 4 of the blanks this morning. One minute at high. I could see the bubbling and steam right where the fuzz of the mold was. Good sign.

By 4:00 PM, the fuzz was back with a vengeance... more at 4 PM than there was after almost a night and day in the basement.

So tonight I took out a big pot brought the water to a rolling boil and in went the blanks and the rest of the mother block. I boiled them for about an hour. Then the blanks went into the micrwave for 1:15 and the 3x3x6 block went in at 50% power for 8 minutes and at full power for 2 minutes. Then the whole shebang went into the oven at 250 degrees. Once they heated up, I turned off the heat and they will sit in there all night long gradually cooling.

If the mold is still growing in the AM, I think they will go into the fireplace.

 

[bitshird]

Bree, that is the strangest thing I've heard of, it would seem after all the stuff you've done to the wood that no fungus could survive.

 

[Bree]

Bree, that is the strangest thing I've heard of, it would seem after all the stuff you've done to the wood that no fungus could survive.

That is exactly what I thought. And we were 100% wrong. I did some research and found out that some mold spores will NOT be killed by boiling... even for many minutes. Some must be heated to over 300 degrees to die.

One thing I did not try is hydrogen peroxide. That might have worked better... not sure.

Anyhoo... the blanks have been in the oven all night slowly cooling. I am running another heating cycle to dry them. I think they are pretty dry right now at least by feel. I am going to take ONE of them down to the basement and let it sit to see what develops. I am not going to turn or cut this wood until I am certain that this fungus is dead. It is too easy to contaminate the entire basement which I may have already done.

Bottom line... best lesson learned... provide no conditions conducive to the growth of mold and fungus. And take damn seriously the fact that we are breathing the dust and these mold spores. If it is this difficult to kill these things outside of the body, how hard would it be to kill this stuff INSIDE the body if it decided that it liked growing there???

I am going to rethink my air filtration system and consider getting a powered respirator. That makes this a very expensive piece of Narra wood.
:beat-up::beat-up::beat-up:

Edit... LUCKILY... this mold or fungus seems to be very specific to Narra wood as none of my other exposed woods have exhibited any corruption. I keep my blanks in plastic boxes so cross contamination there is minimized but I do have a lot of domestic and exotic lumber exposed and that is a great concern.

 

[Bree]

UNBELIEVABLE!!

There ya go... a picture is worth a thousand words. The mold that just wouldn't die. The boiling put a minute coat of wax on the wood so hydrogen peroxide would not penetrate when I tried that this morning. The mold can come out but the medicine can't come in.

The only way I can think of to kill this stuff now is to super steam it where the steam is heated to several hundred degrees. I haven't got that kind of equipment so these blanks and the mama block are going into the trash.
:doctor::doctor::doctor:

 

[Bree]

I think I KILLED it! There is no sign of white fuzzies on any of the blocks this morning... zero... nada.

The blanks went into the oven at 325 degrees for 15 minutes and the big block went in for 45 minutes. Kept the temperature just under minimum ignition and figured that this was the last resort other than loss of the wood to the trash bin.

So hopefully this will end my torturing you with this thread!