# Blue stain in wood.  What is it?



## brakatak (Aug 8, 2013)

I took a oak down and most logs have this dark bluish stain on them.   Once split kinda has a weird stink to it too.  Any ideas wat this is?


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## nrford (Aug 8, 2013)

There is iron in the wood! Nail,eye bolt, horse shoe......... you got lucky you didn't hit any when you bucked to length. The stain is a mineral deposit, the trees way of reacting to the iron. other woods react to the iron as well but the oaks always blue-stain.


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## Applesister (Aug 8, 2013)

Yeah...thats intense. I got a beautiful oak tree from a tree guy last summer. He brought it to a mill and they ran a metal detector over it and said they couldnt take the tree. He warned me there was something in it. I came to the blue stains and eventually an arrow. Most of the time its barbed wire.


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## ScotO (Aug 8, 2013)

Definitely iron or steel in that tree.  Look on the bright side, in three years (which is how long it will take to season that oak) you'll get to see what it was that stained the tree, after it burns in the stove......

Let the countdown to reveal the hidden item begin!!


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## TradEddie (Aug 8, 2013)

Now you've got me intrigued too. We had a small maple come down in Hurricane Sandy, and it looked exactly like that picture. This tree was right beside where there was once an archery backstop, so I guess I should have been more careful cutting, but it never crossed my mind. The chemist in me wonders, blue is an unusual color for iron salts.

TE


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## brakatak (Aug 9, 2013)

Strange.   is this wood still good to burn?       Half the logs from the tree have this blue stain.       I split the whole tree now and have yet to see any iron, etc.     I guess i'll probably run into it eventually.       Can a single nail cause that much discoloration?


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## fireview2788 (Aug 9, 2013)

I was thinking a former Smurf tree fort.


fv


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## ScotO (Aug 9, 2013)

brakatak said:


> Strange.   is this wood still good to burn?       Half the logs from the tree have this blue stain.       I split the whole tree now and have yet to see any iron, etc.     I guess i'll probably run into it eventually.       Can a single nail cause that much discoloration?


its more likely a bolt (possibly an eyebolt or lag from a former clothesline or hammock or something), its completely safe to burn that wood in your stove.  I've cut trees down that had friggin railroad spikes in them!!  Stack it up, season it for a couple years, and enjoy the wonderful heat that it will put out for you down the road.


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## clemsonfor (Aug 9, 2013)

Blue in oak or other hardwood or even line is metal in it.  Blue stain fungus in pine is when the log sits around to long before its hauled or milled.


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## brakatak (Aug 9, 2013)

awesome.   good to know.   thanks for info.    definitely strange when i saw it.       Smelled weird too....   like a smurf took a dump.


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## paul bunion (Aug 9, 2013)

brakatak said:


> Strange.   is this wood still good to burn?       Half the logs from the tree have this blue stain.       I split the whole tree now and have yet to see any iron, etc.     I guess i'll probably run into it eventually.       Can a single nail cause that much discoloration?




My experience is that the size of the stain correspond to the size of the metal.  Like Scotty said, it is probably a bolt or something bigger.   I'm suprised it didn't show up when you split.  Or is it still in the stump?


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## clemsonfor (Aug 9, 2013)

The mineral gets brought up through the tree by the trans location of the tree.


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## HDRock (Aug 9, 2013)

Lots of staining in this oak, U see the culprit


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## Backwoods Savage (Aug 9, 2013)

What's the matter fellas. Haven't you ever heard of blue blood?


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