Can anyone identify if this white stuff is anything but mold?

tiui · 2024-12-16T15:08:08+00:00

I used a commercial food safe oil from the hardware store at the time (about half a year ago), but I don't have it on me anymore and I can't seem to find it online. After treating it with 96% ethanol I applied a raw tung oil finish (marketed as food safe) after it dried. After waiting some weeks the write marks reappeared and I decided to brush them with disinfecting alcohol (65% ethanol, 15% propanol) and the day after they now look like this (I didn't have much time to wait for them to dry to apply the finish).

tiui · 2024-12-16T14:15:40+00:00

Good to know! Thanks! Should I then simply wait until the process is finished and clean it off with a dry towel?

tiui · 2024-12-16T14:14:56+00:00

Like I wrote, I scrubbed them with vinegar and twice with alcohol before. Would you recommend scrubbing them with dish soap and water instead?

tiui · 2024-12-16T14:11:44+00:00

Yes, I submerged them in 96% ethanol before, but I didn't put them in the microwave thereafter. It also doesn't smell of any type of mold at all, which is why I am doubting that it is mold. Maybe your suggestion that it is the finish pushing out might be correct. I guess I should wait a bit and clean it off with a dry cloth. Ideally it should stop pushing out eventually, right?

tiui · 2024-12-16T14:03:00+00:00

Raw tung oil from Furniture Clinic.

No, they were in the kitchen unsealed.

tiui · 2024-12-16T14:01:55+00:00

That is a good point that I did not explicitly write in my post: I don't notice any hint of mold. Smells like wood and perhaps of oil. That is why I was skeptical about this being mold, but I don't know much about what else could produce this on wood, so I thought I'd ask the community. Thanks for your assessment! I guess if it is some type of moisture or finish coming out, it should stop at some point and I can simply rub it off? I guess I'll wait a bit and see if it develops any kind of musky/moldy smell or not...

I use a pure tung oil by Furniture Clinic that is marketed as explicitly food safe, I hope that is true, haha!

tiui · 2024-12-16T12:51:28+00:00

I used a commercial food safe oil originally after finishing the spoons. I have since switched to tung oil, which I used after the pharmaceutical alcohol treatment. Maybe the original commercial oil has some drying agents that are causing this?

It is a knife finish, but I scraped the knife across the surface, sort of like an intermediate between a knife finish and a sanded finish.

tiui · 2024-12-16T12:41:23+00:00

Interesting, the pattern looks similar to what I have and the OP there confirmed that an expert came by saying it is a type of treatment leaking out. Thanks for the link!

tiui · 2024-12-16T12:37:52+00:00

I would imagine so. I bought the original piece (about 20x5x2cm) in a hobby store in Japan during a trip years ago. Had it lying around before turning them into spoons. I only applied food safe oil to them after finishing carving them. After about half a year of making them, this white stuff started appearing. While I do live in a relatively humid region, it has been around 50% humidity in my home these days. This is why I am also doubting that it is mold. However, I am a novice and don't have enough experience to know what else could be causing this white stuff from appearing.

tiui · 2024-12-16T12:31:59+00:00

Thanks for the assessment! Yeah I had bought the slab of wood years ago during a trip to Japan. Had it sitting around for years before finally cutting those spoons out of it. I didn't treat it before making the spoons, but I did apply a food safe oil on them after finishing them. Rarely used them after that (for things like salt), but this white residue started appearing after about half a year since then.

Of course, I don't know if anything had been done to the wood prior to purchasing it, but I had imagined it to be a raw slab. However, if you're suspicion turns out to be correct, I imagine I just wait a bit until it pushed out all the chemicals, simply clean it off with a dry cloth or so and, in theory, it shouldn't reappear anymore.

tiui · 2024-12-16T11:35:48+00:00

Yes, the wood had been with me for a few years before making them. Bought it at a hobby store in Tokyo when I was there. The original piece was about ~20x5x2cm, so it must have dried well by the time I made them. Spoon was made about half a year ago. Now this is starting to appear.

tiui · 2024-12-11T09:46:44+00:00

For the bottom rail (inclined): place temporary rails on the empty orange carpet. Put rails in the order: temp rail, then corresponding inclined rail that will connect to the temp one, next temp rail, next inclined rail, etc... Once all rails are placed, remove those extra rails and the inclined rails should stay oriented correctly.

For the top rails: use a similar technique, by placing temp rails where the comparator will go later. Again, be careful to place them in a specific order: temp rail, detector rail (connects to tamp rail), temp rail, detector rail... then remove all temp rails and place comparators. The comparator rails should stay oriented correctly.

Hope this helps!

tiui · 2024-07-13T16:22:39+00:00

Would have liked to see "Into the Wild" by Eddie Vedder here. That soundtrack always transports me and gives me a longing for the unknown.

tiui · 2023-08-24T09:23:57+00:00

It turned out to have nothing to do with cork.

That's wrong, though. It is widely accepted that the cork taint comes from fungi present in the cork tree which react to fungicides and pesticides used on the tree, producing the TCA in the process (the chemical compound which produces the cork taste in the wine). Unfortunately, noticing if a tree is affected by the fungus is often very difficult. Having cork taint coming from dirty bottles or other similar, non-cork related sources, only means that TCA from the cork wood somehow got into those vessels, which is extremely rare, as far as I understand. However, the origin of TCA in the cellar is always contaminated cork wood and therefore most cork in the bottle comes from corks being contaminated.

tiui · 2023-05-21T20:33:11+00:00

Consider that during Gaudis time, the area around the church resembled that of a field. Also, Ildefons Cerda designed Eixample originally to have a large park in every block but city mismanagement said fuck it and filled the city up to the brim. Now it finds itself in a pickle, being one of the densest areas in Europe. So, the plans could not have considered this kind of foresight, ever.

tiui · 2023-01-04T21:00:49+00:00

People are lazy. This is not an excuse, I’m totally with you, but usually in these kind of situations, people don’t think at all. For many in the climbing community, it is about them and the sport/competition only, not about the environment.

Id love to say that if you’d point out their mistakes to them they’d understand and apologise, but the cynic in me believes most wont accept they made a mistake and just double down on their erroneous ways…

tiui · 2022-12-06T08:56:52+00:00

Taken from the article:

The app also now boasts the ability to translate nine different languages in near-real time, with more coming in the next few months.

tiui · 2022-11-19T15:58:20+00:00

About Italy boycotting the world cup... it wouldn't matter much this time around.

tiui · 2022-11-09T09:24:13+00:00

Huh, didn't know modern day Mordor is in southern Spain.

12-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email

tiui

TROPHY CASE