I have a piece of 2x8 Southern Yellow Pine that forms the back slab of
the bench I am building. I picked this board because it was straight,
knot-free, and had consistent grain direction for planing. And the
"dirt" on it would come off as I dimensioned it, right? WRONG!

I now have what looks like mildew--a grey staining, primarily in the
early wood. Too late to replace it in my project (at least without a
chain saw), and I'm wondering what to do now. I have a cutoff to
experiment with. Resawing a small piece showed the grey stain to be
throughout the wood, not just on the surface.

A dilute Clorox solution had no visible effect. Should I try it
straight? Would wood bleach (oxalic acid?) do anything? My concerns
are primarily to kill whatever this is if it is alive, so that I don't
have spores possibly causing health problems, or something eating the
wood. Only secondarily, I would like to get rid of the stain for
appearances.

Planning to use either tung oil or BLO when bench is finished, if that
makes any difference.

Thanks for any advice, or pointers to sources of information.
--
Alex -- Replace "nospam" with "mail" to reply by email. Checked infrequently.

"alexy" wrote in message
...
I have a piece of 2x8 Southern Yellow Pine that forms the back slab of
the bench I am building. I picked this board because it was straight,
knot-free, and had consistent grain direction for planing. And the
"dirt" on it would come off as I dimensioned it, right? WRONG!

I now have what looks like mildew--a grey staining, primarily in the
early wood. Too late to replace it in my project (at least without a
chain saw), and I'm wondering what to do now. I have a cutoff to
experiment with. Resawing a small piece showed the grey stain to be
throughout the wood, not just on the surface.

A dilute Clorox solution had no visible effect. Should I try it
straight? Would wood bleach (oxalic acid?) do anything? My concerns
are primarily to kill whatever this is if it is alive, so that I don't
have spores possibly causing health problems, or something eating the
wood. Only secondarily, I would like to get rid of the stain for
appearances.

Planning to use either tung oil or BLO when bench is finished, if that
makes any difference.

Thanks for any advice, or pointers to sources of information.

http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fp...tr113/ch13.pdf
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/impgtr01.pdf
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/pdf1984/feist84a.pdf

Learn to love it. Once the wood's below 20% MC, the stuff won't grow.

"George" george@least wrote:


http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fp...tr113/ch13.pdf
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/impgtr01.pdf
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/pdf1984/feist84a.pdf
Thanks, George. Great sources. I haven't read them all yet, but hope
your comment is the crux of it:

Learn to love it. Once the wood's below 20% MC, the stuff won't grow.

That I can live with. It was very wet at the Borg, but has been
sitting in a basement shop (which is bordered on two sides with
finished rooms with conditioned air) for over a year, so is pretty dry
now. Guess I will just seal it up and enjoy the stain.

--
Alex -- Replace "nospam" with "mail" to reply by email. Checked infrequently.