Oak - diseased?

Hugh McManus

Looking for a bit of advice, please.

I recently bought some kiln-dried waney-edged oak to make a bookshelf unit.

On one or two of the boards, parts of the sapwood are pale and marbled (see photo). These areas are also quite soft, (I can mark it if I press hard with my thumbnail.)

oak.jpg

Is this some form of fungal attack, and if so, what kind?

It would suit me much better if I didn't have to remove these portions, and the areas concerned do not require any great structural strength. If I treat them thoroughly with a complete wood-treatment (rot+worm), can I leave these areas in place, or is there a risk of it spreading and/or decaying further?

gavin01

Hi, if you treat it with a chemical like 'Knotting' or similar product you should be fine to use it, ive used oak in this condition before for mirrors etc and never had any problems. What ever product you use you should test it on a small piece to make sure it doesnt stain or react with what ever finish your thinking of using.

Hugh McManus

Thanks Gavin. It's comforting to know that you've used such timber without problems.

I'm planning on using "Protim universal" on the whole lot. It's a clear liquid protector which claims, according to the tin, to kill woodworms and other insects, stop dry rot and other fungi, and protect against further attack. I've tried it out on an offcut and it darkens the wood slightly, but it's grand.

So, hopefully this will do the trick and leave it well protected. (I was planning on putting some kind of treatment on it anyway, as I've heard that waney-edge boards can be prone to attack because of the presence of the live wood, even after kiln-drying.)

Thanks again.

H.

kadman

I would say that the boards show sign of water immersion, moreso than fungal attack. If the piece you are making is going to be in a high traffic area, children, or pets near it, it is more likely to suffer impact damage, being so soft and brittle. So it would be a shame to put a lot of work into it, if the material is not up to the task.

kadman

Mahatma coat

would have said water damage too, however you say that the timber was sold to you as KD

if this is the case then there is something seriously wrong there, if it was imersed in water before the drying then it would look very different, if it is water damage from later then it shouldnt be sold as KD

Alun

Sometimes get this problem with turning blanks, especially spalted ones, and the usual remedies involve treating the 'punky' wood with some kind of hardening / preserving treatment. Google Pentacryl as an example, also some people use their own homemeade concoctions involving thinly diluted epoxy resins or other glues. I've used thin CA glue as well (although this would be impractical for such a large volume).

Search the rec.crafts.woodturning group on Google Groups for the word "punky" and you'll find lots of other suggestions.

Hugh McManus

Thanks for this further help, folks.

Mahatma, are you sure it couldn't be water damage from before the drying? It's bone dry now, and I've reason to believe it wasn't very long out of the kiln.

In fairness, these are big boards, (9' by 12") and they did warn me that taking the complete boards meant it would be hard to avoid getting some dodgy bits. If I hadn't bought them this way, they'd have been sawing them up into narrower and shorter timber and discarding the bad stuff.