Well, I have been doing the plastic bag trick for about a month and a half now on a piece of mulberry. The sucker has gotten a nasty mold or mildew stain on it. Naturally, it is stained on the "lightest" color of the piece. Now, how to get rid of it? Suggestions? Can't turn much more off it as it is "roughed" out pretty thin. In the future would a chunk of 3" swimming pool chlorine tablet work?
Stumped in Texas Lewis
Well, a lot of people use brown paper bags but here in central Texas, most of us use plastic grocery bags. Put the wood in and every day you reverse the bag (turn it inside out) as a method of drying the wood slowly to reduce checking. The air tightness and the temperture will cause the wood to "sweat", releasing the water. Now I got the stain. On some wood, it enhances the wood, but not in this case.
Lewis
The plastic bag trick will almost always provide an environment for mold and mildew to flourish - it is best to paper bag the stuff that you do not want to have the stains appear! Your best bet now is to try and kill the mold/mildew and hope you can sand off the surface. To kill the mold, you may want to use bleach or Tilex Mold/Mildew spray (this works if you spray, rub and scrape of fthe stain). Try putting the piece back on the lathe using a waste block glued to the base - do the power sanding starting at 180 to 400 that should get the surface cleaned up - if not, you have a stained piece that you can still sell it. Make up a story of how this piece of wood washed up on the shore of Lake Travis at Hippy Hollow and you snagged it from one of the sunbathers who was using it for a pillow.......I could happen!
Ray
Oh, you bring back 40 year old memories of my old alma mater! Hippy holler and Hamilton pool....hmmmmmm!!!
Thanks Ray Lewis
I have to agree that a plastic bag is a very good way to grow nasty stuff. A brown bag is a much better option although it will still need changing every couple days. I had a piece of box elder burl recently that was full of stain when I got it. I tried everything I could think of to remove the stain but nothing would touch it. The cure rather than throwing it away was to dye it black. I sanded away some of the dye and had a very attractive piece.
Bob, Naugatuck Ct.
I live in a dry climate. We got 1/4" of rain between June 15 and October
Paper bags didn't work for me. Things dried too fast. So I tried plastic bags and swapped paper bags in and out as blotters, replacing them with dry bags each day. Slow and tedious.
For vases, I tried a box with a plastic garbage bag over it. This worked well, so now I do this for bowls and vases.
Derek
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