I was given a black walnut stump by a friend about 2 weeks ago. I had it cut into slices and put it in my shed to dry. I did put stickers in between the pieces. I opened the shed today and found that mold had started to grow on almost all the pieces. The weather has been wet and cold with some freezing nights. What do I do now? I don’t want to ruin the wood. It has a beautiful grain and best of all it was free. Anyone got any thoughts? Thanks, Bekshun
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Replies
I basically the same thing you did. I sliced up walnut and stickered it and placed it on a shelf near my bench. I also put my electric radiator near my bench for heat. I created mold. I used bleach last summer to kill the mold. It only lightened the outside, the inside stayed dark. Try using a fan to circulate the air. Or better yet, ask Jon Arno.
relax,
ya just about can't hurt walnut.. I had a similar problem and washed everything with clorox bleach and it came out fine..
now tell me are those slices in the form of rounds? If they are you do realize that they will split don't you? the outside dries before the inside and that causes stress which results in a split of crack usually right to the center or pithe of the round..
only way I know to avoid that would be to seal everything with a great wax and let it age for years..
I had them sliced vertically. The ends will check but I'm hoping it doesn't go too far and I can salvage a good amount of whats left.
Should I move the stack outside to dry or leave it where it is? I have room outside under a shaded area.
Thanks for your response. Bekshun
If you get a chance to do it again, paint the ends of the stump with old latex or scrap paint BEFORE you cut it. Doing it afterwards will work but is a lot of work.
Michael
The only thing I can think of is to wax the ends so you don't get as much checking. and let things go. since the shed is not heated they should dry fairly slowly and this should keep the checking to a minimum
dave
get more airflow around the wood so that it will dry quicker. No need to worry about checking in walnut. The reason mold was growing is that it is drying too slow.
BEK, I would agree with Jim in post #7. You need to improve airflow. The mold is initially superficial. You want to make conditions unattractive for it to continue to metabolize. Molds (fungi) that feed on wood go dormant when the wood's moisture content falls below about 20%. The objective is to get the surface of the wood to that condition as soon as possible...so, airflow is key.
Walnut has a very high natural resistance to decay and a rather low T/R ratio, so it is not a wood that is difficult to season. It doesn't bluestain easily and it doesn't develop extremely high shrinkage stress.
On the downside, though, if you keep it perpetually moist, it tends to pick up some sort of infestation (bacterial?) that will give it a very foul odor...So, get the air moving. It doesn't have to be at hurricane force, just enough to prevent the saturated wood from keeping its immediate environment near the dew point.
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