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Long story short, I hadn't been out to my shop in about 5 days. I get there today and discover there's a leak dripping directly onto almost half of my stash and, evidently, it's been going for a while.

Basically I've got about 30 top sets (all Very high grade) wet, about half of which are completely soaked through, the others are half + soaked through. All but 4 of my spruce tops were spared but every one of my cedar tops are wet (including the one that was top of the stack that I was planning to join today for a current build).

Also, about 15 back sets are wet (mostly high grade eir, some curly sp cedar and other misc). None of those are completely soaked but some are about half soaked and most are anywhere from very slightly cupped to extremely warped.

I spent a few hrs cleaning up, cutting stickers, stickering, and weighting everything.
Anything else I should do to salvage things?

Obviously I'm not going to be able to use any of these sets for a while but I think the majority will eventually be ok. My biggest concern is water staining. Anybody have any experience with this sort of thing? Will oxalic remove water stains?

William, get a fan moving air across those sets as soon as possible or mold will set in. If you get a few spots right away don't worry about it they won't be deep but you need to get the surface dry as soon as you can. The wood is thin and should be quite resistent to cracking so don't worry about drying too fast. The cedar sets are fine they just need more dry time.

Shane

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Canada

I'd clean it all with deionized water to try and prevent any mineral staining. I also might completely soak sets that were only partially soaked so as to try and even out any color issues. Then sticker it with non reactive and waterproof sticks, clamp it all tight and let it air dry. I wouldn't use a fan as that could potentially cause cracks from case hardening. A fan for proximity circulation, yes, but not on the stash directly. Slow and steady. Taylor used to cover their green piles with plastic sheeting and burp it once a week allowing moisture out, to slow down the drying. In your case, you might want to let it dry uncovered until the surfaces are at least dry just so you prevent, as Shane pointed out, any potential mold. You don't want the plastic to seal the wood in, just to slow down the drying.

Is case hardening a concern with dry wood that has become water logged? What I mean is, these are not green tops. I thought drying from green was removing the water from inside the cells themselves and once that happened, additional wetting is just getting water inside the fibers and it is much easier/safer to remove it. keep in mind, I am not trying to seem like I know what I am talking about here, just asking the question for my own education (I could easily be way off base).

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

It won't be a concern at all with the top woods. I typically process red spruce from green billets, sawing them into 3/16" guitar tops and stickering them immediately. A fan is used on the tops, because the quicker they dry, the less chance of blue staining.

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John

Thanks guys. I was able to make it back out to the shop last night after work. Everything is dry to the touch now, though a couple of the tops that were completely soaked still feel a bit cool.
Almost everything seems to have gone back flat as you as could want them. I think it helped that they were reasonably well seasoned-most of the tops were 5-10 yrs old with 5-6 being around 15.

Several of the tops look as though they have pretty really bad water staining but, at least on the couple that I pulled to check out, it seems to plane right out, not be very deep.
That, unfortunately, doesn't seem to be the case for 4 sets of 45 year old curly spanish cedar that I've got. The staining on those appears to run deeper than I'd care to plane/sand, possibly all the way through...hmmm
EIR seems fine. A few sets had cupped a little when moist but all are flat again and don't look to be stained.

All will be OK soon enough...
You did the right thing with getting them stacked, stickered, and a fan on them...

The water won't do anything bad structurally...

Thanks