black fungus on doug fir

[bman]

I have a bunch of doug fir I cut into 8x8 timbers. I noticed that when I milled the the logs some of the cants with in 24 hours developed areas of a black fungus and when I milled into 8x8s those areas persisted. This week I finished/planed some of the timbers and noticed that where the fungus occured it has discolored the wood deeper than my 1/8 planer passes can remove. Is this something that will affect the integrity of the wood as it is being used for a timber frame house? The fungus stains run along a difininte demarcation line in the grain of the wood. After planing I applied some boiled linseed oil to try and slow the loss of moisture and preserve the color of the unaffected areas. Will the linseed oil help keep the fungus in check? Will the fugus stop once the timbers are dry? Thnx Bman

 

[shanesaw]

I believe what you are seeing is spalting,(I am not positive) I have a bunch of spalted maple, I like it for the looks in furniture, I do not believe that it should effect the strength as long it is not extensive. In maple it is moisture that will cause spalting, once it goes to far you will know it the wood turns soft. So if you keep the wood dry it should be ok. No guarentees expressed or implied, I'm no expert. Good Luck

 

[shanesaw]

something else if you hit that with some tung oil it will darken the wood and make those black lines stand out, it looks beutiful

 

[gumneck]

Bman,

I've been milling yellow pine lately and have run into the same problem with a similar size beam. I cut the beam last Friday. The log had been sitting on pallets 4 feet off the ground for about month and a half prior to milling. As soon as I milled the beam I put it right underneath a barn shelter with an open bay door. Beam now is full of black/green mold. I stickerd it off of another beam milled several months ago. The beam did not get rain water and there was no covering on it to trap moisture.

If you find out anything I'd love to know how to stop it too. I was wondering about mixing a 10% solution of clorax to water and put in sprayer and coat the beam lightly with it.

Good luck.
tom

 

[geofore]

clorox/bleach for pine

Why not ask the Doctor over at www.woodbin.com? I usually lightly spray with 100% clorox then let dry for a few weeks, restack/spray again to keep it white. If you want spalting, sprinkle with bat guano and a light spritz of water and then sticker again to let the bat dropping do their work to get spalting that some are after for fancy wood projects. In a month or two restack after brushing off the dropings, a few go a long way. It gives the pine nice black lines and purple/reds in between the lines. A handfull of dust from an old attic works for spalding also, just spritz the pine with water and blow the dust on the pine and restack with stickers. If you want white you need to spray with bleach as soon as it is cut, spores by the millions are in the air just looking for a moist place to land and start feeding. Old timers used to soak hard woods in a vat of lime milk (lime mixed in water) for two or three weeks then rinse and sticker to keep the wood from warping and lighten the color. It would netraulize the tannic acid in the wood and keep wood like slippery elm from twisting up as it dried.

 

[gumneck]

Thanks George. I'll try the 100% bleach. Sounds too late now but I'll give it a go.

 

[redprospector]

We run into that here in the rainy season. It's basically mildew. I have found that a 50/50 mix of bleach & water is way plenty. It is the same thing that turns an old board & bat house black if it is not sealed. 50/50 bleach will turn the whole house light again. It dosen't take much, at least where I am. It's pretty dry.

Andy

 

[gumneck]

You know what. Your right, when I cut this last beam the humidity was way up around here last week. I cut three other beams(similar size same wood) back in March(no humidity) and they are clean as a whistle. Bleach will go on tomorrow.