fungus nightmare! are my planks ruined?

[samiad]

I have some sycamore and horse chestnut planks but ive left them in a pile in my living room this week whist i sort a place to store them properly. i had a look at them today and they are covered in fungus! The sycamore especially has green/blue streaks and an extensive film of white fungus. The horse chestnut is not so bad, just some black speckles and blue fungus in parts.

 

The fungus wipes clean to reveal clean wood but will the planks be ruined? I will dry them out properly now but wanted to see if this is a common treatable thing or if im wasting my time.

 

Ive taken several pics

 

1. the green streak on sycamores

2 wiping clean

3 fungus on sycamore

4 fungus on horse chestnut

5 sycamores after wiping

6 horse chestnuts after wiping.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated. thanks allot!

 

p.s the ends of a few planks are splitting. Should i paint them with PVA?

 

Sam

[RobArb]

that 4th one looks like some sort of damp mould!

[samiad]

I know! But its only been down 5 days! A couple of the planks were glued together with the stuff! Like I said though,it wipes off. Do you think if I clean them, apply some fungicide spray or something then let them dry properly I will be ok?

[RobArb]

not sure mate? but is it not worth ago? would kiln drying them work?

 

not an expert on this type of stuff so couldn't 100% recommend anything

[tommer9]

You will be very lucky to get them back to god (the syc).It is probably the most fickle timber to mill. Unless you stand the boards upright the very second they come off the mill, and leave them upright for a while they may very well get ruined. That mould could go right through the board, or at least turn the timber yellowy brown if not totally streaked with mould. YOu need to get ALL the sawdust off them immediately too.

 

These boards were left for a month before i lay them down, but in the time it took me to take them from the mill across the yard and into this barn, they suffered!!

Thats how difficult sycamore is. They only ended up with two VERY small black streaks, but even so! The problem is that sycamore should be bone white when dry, and even golden/ yellowy stuff is very difficult to market as sycamore if you see what i mean. Most mills wont touch it. It also should be cut when there is little sap in it if its to go milling.

I would get them somewhere very dry and stood upright, and you MIGHT stand a chance of ending up with something. Or wrap it in plastic and hope it spalts not rots!

[TRADITIONAL LOGGERS]

Depends on the end use. A wash down in hot water with Ecover would help but the main item is fresh air and sunlight without fresh sawdust. Ash and Sycamore can be dried stood up to save space but I always use pine sticks to space them and cobble stones to raise of the ground.

 

Make some interesting products and sell them local. You could always plane them down again and make some cheese/chopping boards like we did. (Sold well)

[tommer9]

Standing sycamore up is not a space saving excercise, it is essential to ensure correct colour of the timber when dry, and no mould problems. If you have had success putting them in stick straight away you have been lucky. I was the first time i milled it when i knew nowt about milling (not that i know much now lol) and got away with it, but the first time i was caught out i ended up burning 2.5 ks worth of kitchen worktops as they were black through!!!

[TRADITIONAL LOGGERS]

Three months from milling to being made into products with a nice south facing site and breeze blowing. Done it often but thickness of wood helps with success of end product.

 

Took some logs around to a man who made violins and it had some waste Sycamore in he was going bonkers at the ripples on the wood.

 

Up to 3" thickness dries well and 1" can end crack.

[samiad]

Thanks allot

 

Some really good advice thanks allot. I didnt realize sycamore was so tricky. Im not selling them, they are just for personal use. I just had a scrape away with an axe and the green blue stuff goes about 1.5mm deep, not right through yet. Some of it is still very white. Was going to have a go at some shelves and other bits and bats so if i can save some of them thats great. i'l get them stood up tonight. my girlfriend isn't too keen, she just came in and went apeshit, said the house reeked of mushrooms!

 

Good tips thanks . I don't know much about this, should have done more research but might as well experiment with these. So if I give them a good clean, get some of that Ecover on asap ant get them drying I might stand a chance with a few. What about wrapping in news paper? i'l try a few in plastic too. Do a bit of everything, some might survive and im happy to plane them back more if that will help.Should I do this now or just leave them until ready to finish? What about PVA at the ends or paint? Ive got a few that have small splits already. I in for a rude awakening to this game i fear!

 

thanks again!

 

I'l let you know how it goes, take more pics. They goin in the loft tonight!

[twmarriott]

to be honest its good practice to leave any fresh timber upright for some time (dependant on how wet it is) to dry to stop it going mouldy, scrubbing and hot water may bring it back but i suspect the colour may be screwed up. its a steep learing curve, if timber dries too quickly it will check and split, its a balancing act.