blue stain

[SwampDonkey]

Hmmm 5% by volume of sodium hypochlorite that reduces with shelf life, the other by-products are regular salt and water.

Maybe, but anything I have read says it's only effective on contact and on bacteria and some viruses. It is caustic to and when used to shock a new well it can cause the "lime" to precipitate and potentially clog if your water is rich in calcium carbonate. Also in that lime you get bacteria preserved which kinda makes you wonder how effective it is. :  Just going by what I read, I'm no expert and not really arguing.

[Tom]

I've used household bleach with pretty good results.  I'm convinced something remains on the wood.  My neighbor used swimming pool bleach and cut it with water.  It was still stronger than the   5% cut bleach.  He even had the insects leave it and they didn't return.  It's been stacked outdoors for almost 10 years now, covered, and still no insects.  I don't know that I would recommend that strong of an application, but it's hard to argue with his results.

[SwampDonkey]

What bleach does is reacts to wood like it does to cotton in the wash. Now using a pressure washer and bleach water probably removes some wood. Bleach however, definitely breaks down wood fibres, don't know to what degree at 5% solution. Maybe that makes some kind of contribution in some cases to deterring mold? I don't know to what degree fibre would be removed from pressure washing with bleach, but most mold is just on the surface so wouldn't take much to remove it I suppose. Salt in itself is not an attractive environment for bug or fungus, but from what I've experienced when cleaning, bleach doesn't deter mold even if the surface stays dry and there is a film of soap you can't even see or seem to remove. Keeps growing back, it may not be immediate, could be 3 months later.

[okie]

There is a sawmill in southeast Ok that sells blue stain pine. In the bargain post, they advertise rough sawn pine lumber  and the blue is nearly double the price of the other. I havent seen any before as there arent many pines large enough to saw close to me. I have sawn maple and pecan and found pink and purple and green hues following the grain before. Is this for the same reason?

[SwampDonkey]

Hard maple has a week pinkish hue, and yellow birch often has a very pink hue in really old growth where the bark on the but log is no longer gold yellow. It's not stain and in the birch it is prime stuff. In soft maple the streaks are fungal following the ambrosia holes like I posted in the pine picture. ;D