If you sell to woodworkers, your customers are already here
Articles Forums Gallery Marketplace Videos

WoodCentral Forums

Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge

Gold-Plated Hammers – Yes, Really!

Pine problem

Posts

Pine problem

#1

hb

Pine problem

HB

>Hope you guys are alright with my asking this question here since it pertains to the wood, not the handtools used on the wood, but here's the history and the question follows.....

Ripped out carpeting in the master bedroom. Went to the local mill and got 10 inch wide pine planks sawn to 4/4 8- 12 feet long.

Dressed the edges of the boards and laid them for a wide plank floor. Once they were laid I took a knock off of a a stanley 45 (scrub plane) with a nicely radiused blade and smoothed the sawmill marks out of the floor and left a nice lightly rippled floor.

At the request of my wife, the floor was left totally unfinished (raw).

Here's the problem, some of the boards have developed dark patches. Dark like black, while the wood around it is turning a nice deep golden color. I did make sure that the pine I got was cut during the winter months, cause I've experienced bacterial/fungal darkening of pine that was cut during summer months.

Does anybody have any idea why some of the wood turned black? The nearest that I can tell is that it has something to do with isolated patches of wood that contained a lot of pitch and it oxidizes black.

Any ideas on avoiding this in the future? or should the wood have been sealed?

Thanks!

Re: Pine problem

#2

Re: Pine problem

bill tindall

>I don't know but that doesn't rule out guessing!

1. Pitch is picking up dirt. Does black penetrate to much depth? The benefit of kiln drying pine is that it "sets the sap" so that the sap is not gummy.

2. Iron typically turns wood black. Any opportunity for an iron stain-nail, spill, ??

3. Fungus, but I don't see why a fungal stain would be in isolated patches. It takes moisture to get a fungal stain. Leaky roof (just kidding).

The depth of the stain would be important information.

Re: Pine problem

#3

Re: Pine problem *LINK*

Frank D. in Montreal

>I guess it's not bluestain if you've experienced it before. Was the wood kiln dried? Kiln drying kills bluestain but if it's not kiln dried and still moist (insuffucient air-drying) it can develop, only on sapwood which, in some species or trees, can look very similar to heartwood. Just thought I'd eliminate that possibility, I have no idea what else could cause it to discolor.


Everything you wanted to know about bluestain

Re: Pine problem

#4

hb

Re: Pine problem

HB

>Thanks for the information on Blue Stain. I thought that I had erradicated thi9s problem from the pile of wood that I used for the floor since I weeded out any blue stained boards after the wood had been stacked and stickered for 3 months with active ventilation around the pile. I figured that any wood that wasn't blue stained by then sould be fine.

This stuff really appears to be oxidized pitch, but the wierd thing is that apparently I planed enough of the wood away to prevent it from happening in some places. there are actual stripes of clear wood alternating with the black color, where apparently the plane took a diferent depth of shaving off the plank?

Very confusing.

Maybe I just need to build a solar kiln and pass all wood through that first.

When the whole project started, I wondered if four months from tree to floor was too quick, and dimensionally iot [proved not to be, but aesthetically, I think I goofed.

Thanks for the info.

HB

👍 This page answered my questions

Your vote helps other woodworkers quickly find the answers and techniques that actually work in the shop.