I picked up about 200 bf of silver maple from a local guy who's moving and
was looking to dump it for beer money. He had it milled a few years ago,
and it's had plenty of time to dry. All cut from the same tree, mostly 1x
8" to 12" widths.

Some areas have a bit of spalting, and some look like there may have been
mold on it at some point during drying, but there is nothing actaully
growing on it AFAICT. Is there something I should do to clean this stuff up
before use? Is there a risk of spreading spores all over my
shop/house/lungs? I've read about wiping things down with a light bleach,
but thought I'd ask here.

And gloat... Gloat.

-MJ

On Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:21:51 -0500, "Mark Johnson"
wrote:

I picked up about 200 bf of silver maple from a local guy who's moving and
was looking to dump it for beer money. He had it milled a few years ago,
and it's had plenty of time to dry. All cut from the same tree, mostly 1x
8" to 12" widths.

Some areas have a bit of spalting, and some look like there may have been
mold on it at some point during drying, but there is nothing actaully
growing on it AFAICT. Is there something I should do to clean this stuff up
before use? Is there a risk of spreading spores all over my
shop/house/lungs? I've read about wiping things down with a light bleach,
but thought I'd ask here.

Hi mark,

I have a stack of oak boards that have been laying around since 1981.
I had to move them in 1999 and noted two problems: mold stains and
mouse pee/poop stains.

Using a spraybottle, I applied a mix of 1/3 bleach 2/3 water to the
stains to kill the mold and the pee/poop smell. The solution was not
rinsed off. The stains went from blackish to an uneven light grayish.

The wood seems to finish up OK. I use a teak stain. Recommend you
conduct a test sample.

BTW, oak sure gets hard over the years. Tough to work with. Lots of
chipping in the planer which has to be sanded out. You may experience
the same problem.

Regards, Gary

Mark Johnson wrote:

And gloat... Gloat.

-MJ




It's hazardous and useless. I will give you my address. You can ship it
to me for proper disposal. :-)