had some stacked scraps outdoors and noticed was surprised to find out
which ones grew mold and to what degree

douglas fir had some but not a lot and it was whitish
redwood had tiny amount and was whitish
bamboo had the most and was blackish
pine had blackish and whitish
eucalpytus had some whitish on the bark but not the wood


thought bamboo would be resistant just due to the tolerance it has
to wet environments but since it is a monocot and quicker to grow
it may be quicker to break down

I'd spray them down - in the areas with bleach or wipe it. Another is a
mold killer. The other thing - baking soda. Better likely. It changes
the PH and kills the mold.

White is common on Oak.

If the redwood is all red (no yellow sap wood) it isn't perfect. Sap
goes first then the heart wood. The bark has tons of tanninc acid in it
to keep off most things.

The neat thing - I used to have acreage with about 100 coastal trees to
160' or so and the birds - crows and such Jays mostly place acorns into
the bark after picking a hole in it and come back the next year. It
pickles the acorn and the worm inside. Then they eat the whole thing.

Martin

On 2/23/2017 7:32 PM, Electric Comet wrote:

had some stacked scraps outdoors and noticed was surprised to find out
which ones grew mold and to what degree

douglas fir had some but not a lot and it was whitish
redwood had tiny amount and was whitish
bamboo had the most and was blackish
pine had blackish and whitish
eucalpytus had some whitish on the bark but not the wood


thought bamboo would be resistant just due to the tolerance it has
to wet environments but since it is a monocot and quicker to grow
it may be quicker to break down

"Martin Eastburn" wrote in message
...

TANGENT ALERT

My first wood mold was 35 years ago. I made a simple conical bullet mold by
pinning two pieces of wood together, and drilling the seam with a proper
size drill bit at a high RPM and modest feed rate. Then I lightly
carbonized the cavity with a butane lighter. I found I could make about 50
bullets before they started to get a little to tight to feed into my old .45
Pennsylvania style cap and ball rifle. Linen patched of course. I just
wanted cheap bullets so I could afford powder and caps so I could shoot my
rifle, but they shot better than I expected. They held 3 inch groups off a
rest at 75 yards. Not awesome, but shootable. Commercial roundballs in the
same rifle would shoot an overlapping cloverleaf pattern at the same range.
Still. They worked. I did find if I upped hte powder charge slightly they
seemed to shoot a little beter, but for just target practice and fun
shooting I shot them with a pretty light powder charge.

Anyway, that's about the simplest wood mold to study I know of. I wonder if
my dad still has any of them laying around.

On Thu, 23 Feb 2017 19:46:43 -0600
Martin Eastburn wrote:

I'd spray them down - in the areas with bleach or wipe it. Another
is a mold killer. The other thing - baking soda. Better likely. It
changes the PH and kills the mold.

taking the cheap and easy way out and separating and exposing to sunlight

if the mold went deep then it gives the piece character if not then it
just gets sanded off later

If the redwood is all red (no yellow sap wood) it isn't perfect. Sap
goes first then the heart wood. The bark has tons of tanninc acid in
it to keep off most things.

the redwood showed no mold but maybe i need to look closer

The neat thing - I used to have acreage with about 100 coastal trees
to 160' or so and the birds - crows and such Jays mostly place acorns
into the bark after picking a hole in it and come back the next
year. It pickles the acorn and the worm inside. Then they eat the
whole thing.

woodpeckers do that too

the jays are significant for new recruitment of trees

the acorns they place in the ground sometimes are forgotten and become
oak trees