Fungus in you shinai!

[Lady_Kitsune]

I recently discover that my first shinai, my fave shinai has fungus on it. I treated with heat and light and it seems that the fungus went away, but I'm affraid it mught come back. What should I do to be sure that it will never come back and how can avoid this happen again ever! cos I'm not sure when this happened anyway.

[Sparv]

If I remember well, The Great I Am had the same problem, after using vegetal oil on his shinai (I read it in the thread about the ugly shinais), but he might suffer from an hangover right now, don't expect a fast answer.

[Lady_Kitsune]

Oh, ok... Just for the record thou, discard the oil cos I use almond ooil and only on the outside and the fungus was on the inside

[Lady_Kitsune]

Oh and it has to say Fungus on your shinai in the main title... I hate when I press a letter and they decide not to come anyway.

[Rob W.]

If you take apart your shinai and wipe the staves down with rubbing alcohol on a clean cloth, let sit in a dry, airy, sunny place for a couple of hours, then rub down with alcohol once more before you re-assemble you should have no more trouble with mold. I've never problems with a moldy shinai, but this process works with moldy everything-else-I-can-think-of.

[Lady_Kitsune]

Thank you for that

[JoDuncan]

I don't mean to sound counter productive but the alcohol will dry it out. You don't want dry shinai slats as they will be prone to splintering and cracking.

Make sure you are not using an oil that can go rancid i.e. olive oil, veg oil etc. Use linseed oil or another favourite amongst wood workers.

It is likely that the oil you used just went, as we say here, foostie. Disinfect with whatever, rub down and give a liberal oiling with linseed.

Oiling on the outside or inside, it doesn't matter as the oil will permeate through the entire wood. Don't know anything about almond oil so don't know if that could be the cause.

[Lady_Kitsune]

Thanks for that, I finally didn't use alcohol, only loads of sun and heat and I oil the shinai. it seems to be fine now, let see how it works during the days.

[Rob W.]

Thanks, that's a good point that I hadn't thought of. A little alcohol rubbed on as an anti-mold disinfectant shouldn't totally ruin a shinai, maybe you could re-oil right afterward.

I've never put alcohol on a shinai myself, so take the advice with a grain of salt.

[gir]

Maybe apply oil to the Shinai and Alcohol to yourself... If the Oil doesn't help the Alcohol should at least make you not care :D